Re: Smartcard recognition, really?
NHS Digital provide "client software" and APIs to authenticate people.
Users are issued smartcards to log-on to their systems and a real time authentication against the user data held in the Spine is required. There is a permissions system, controlling who can do what on what data. Each user registered with the Spine Directory Service has a User Profile with several Roles.
If the client software provided by HSIC does not work on NHSUbuntu then this restricts what users can do if they need the roles provided by their smartcard to work. At the moment they only support Windows OS.
Spine technical information: Warranted Environment Specification (WES)
https://digital.nhs.uk/spine/technical-information-warranted-environment-specification
Disclaimer: I work for a company which provides a unified healthcare information system. Any comments I post here are purely personal and do not represent the company in any way.
NHSUbuntu works with our system which should be no suprise as any Internet-connected device – tablets, smartphones, or computers work with it. The issue is with SmartCard authentication for specific roles which you can only do with Windows OS clients due the software provided by NHS Digital.