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Switching a College from Desktops to Laptops?
tverbeek asks: "The college of art and design where I work is going to start switching next year from a labs-with-desktops approach to computers, to a students-with-laptops approach. The president appears to have made up his mind that we're doing it, so that's not really up for debate. We'll be starting by equipping all the full-time faculty this year, then next year start requiring (as in 'you can use financial aid to pay for it') each new student to buy a laptop that meets our specs (Apple or Dell, depending on major). Does anyone have experience with this kind of transition? What were the biggest complications?"
"How did you handle software licensing, especially for high-priced apps? How do you do software installs/upgrades? What do you do for resource-hungry apps (e.g. CAD, 3D rendering)? What about traditional lab configuration issues like anti-malware software, classroom restrictions on IM/P2P/network gaming, standard configuration options, etc. that would seem impossible to do with computers you don't own?
I know that many other colleges have done this sort of thing, but what about *art schools* or other colleges with high-end needs but mostly non-technical users, and where something like Photoshop is considered a 'core' application more than MS Office? Also, I'm especially interested in info about much more/less support staff the laptop approach requires; my intuition says that 1000 unsecured laptops will take more work to support than 300 locked-down desktops, but I need data."
I know that many other colleges have done this sort of thing, but what about *art schools* or other colleges with high-end needs but mostly non-technical users, and where something like Photoshop is considered a 'core' application more than MS Office? Also, I'm especially interested in info about much more/less support staff the laptop approach requires; my intuition says that 1000 unsecured laptops will take more work to support than 300 locked-down desktops, but I need data."
As for the malware thing, in order for a laptop to get on the network, it had to prove it was up-to-date each time, and had to prove it was running university-approved, up-to-date anti-malware (provided free by the institute). This worked marginally well with only a few outbreaks.
Oh please, Mr. Spirit, provide us with a link to such a dissaster. I can't believe it.
Art students had little to no trouble, as they all bought macs. :)
How the heck does that work? What does your little system think of Debian, which is more secure and less trouble that either of the above? What do visitors do? Who's software makes the check? If it's M$, aren't you afraid they will be up to their usual anti-competitive tricks?
up-to-date anti-malware (provided free by the institute).
You might check to see if you are not paying for this "service" through tech fees. Few anti-virus writers give their product away. The Microsoft shills and reps at my University are socking it to students at $150/year and calling it "free".
This worked marginally well with only a few outbreaks.
I'd consider that a failure, but others have lower expectations. If it is only a marginal success, why recommend it to others?
The downside? Tech support, and lots of it. Students got confused, broke stuff, or generally got mad when things didn't work on the first try.
Now that, I can believe. Everyone pays for Bill Gate's failures everyday. Why not just use software that works?
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Now, my question is: how much profit will the University official(s) who is/are organizing this be getting their hands on? From the laptop manufacturer? From the school administration? From the operating system manufacturer? From the pre-installed software manufacturers?