Advice needed re. purchase of laptops for educational use.

[mr kazoo]

I am working in a summer school and we are planning on buying between 6 and 10 laptops for educational use, mainly for use with digital projectors, Internet, games DVDS etc. The budget is in the range of €800- €1000, a middle of the road laptop..not too cheap, not very pricey, but solid and dependable. I'm not very knowledgeable on the topic but i'm told that they should have at least 2GB RAM... I've heard that Toshiba are generally reliable and that people are having problems with some Dell laptops...Just wondering of any other views or experiences that people might have?

 

[Rois]

Sounds expensive for what you require. By all means look for 2GB ram as a minimum but 3-4 GB even better - especially if you intend using Windows Vista operating system. But also look for a good processor e.g. Core 2 Duo, wireless capability and dedicated graphics card for games. Toshiba are reliable, as are HP, Compaq, Asus, Sony (though pricey). Dell laptops are generally ok - maybe you could negotiate some volume puchase deal and extended warranty with them.

 

[j26]

Apple's offerings are generally well suited for educational use, and the ongoing maintenance cost tends to be lower (no antivirus, more stable Operating System, so less time wasted on crashes, getting support etc)
However, it depends on what you actually want to do with them, and if people are willing to put in the effort of learning a new OS, even though it is quite easy to use.

The trouble is they aren't cheap.

 

[nai]

Apple's offerings are generally well suited for educational use, and the ongoing maintenance cost tends to be lower (no antivirus, more stable Operating System

Do not buy Apples for Educational use - a very small percentage of people own Apples for home use so the kids wouldn't be able to practise like for like exercises at home. And as for not requiring Virus software and a more stable OS - you are less likely to get hit with a virus but if you do it will be a serious one - the viruses generated for Apple tend to be more serious. With regard to the more stable OS - XP is pretty damn stable now.

My advice would be Toshiba - and you'd get some great laptops for €800 (is that ex vat or incl ?)

Have a look at www.bms.ie (I've used them for years - and am just ordering a Tecra A10 from them today). For school use I'd advise the Satellite Pro (s300 or A300) - all have XP as an option and for XP 2GB ram would be sufficient. Go into the B2B section of the site and work from there.

 

[j26]

a very small percentage of people own Apples for home use so the kids wouldn't be able to practise like for like exercises at home.

That sort of depends on the use, doesn't it. If it's word processing or spreadsheets and such, MS Office is available for macs, or even better OpenOffice is available free.

And as for not requiring Virus software and a more stable OS - you are less likely to get hit with a virus but if you do it will be a serious one - the viruses generated for Apple tend to be more serious.

For the record, there are NO viruses in the wild at present for OS X. How does that compare to Windows?

 

[nai]

That sort of depends on the use, doesn't it. If it's word processing or spreadsheets and such, MS Office is available for macs, or even better OpenOffice is available free.

For the record, there are NO viruses in the wild at present for OS X. How does that compare to Windows?

If they're teaching basic computing etc in school then they will be teaching just that - computer navigation, file management etc - very different on Apple versus Windows.

As for Viruses - why listen to Sophos/McAfee etc. Just go ahead assuming that your Apple doesn't need Virus protection - it'll be fine.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/25/mac_malware_menace/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/16/mac_malware_concern/

I'm not going to debate the positives of Apples versus Windows - personally I run at least 6 different OS's - each has a different use and I use each one for the tasks I deem best.

My point here is that for a small school teaching network you are probably best going with the most readily available OS for the benefit of the students especially given that there is a restricted (but comfortable) budget in play.

 

[mr kazoo]

My advice would be Toshiba - and you'd get some great laptops for €800 (is that ex vat or incl ?)

Have a look at www.bms.ie (I've used them for years - and am just ordering a Tecra A10 from them today). For school use I'd advise the Satellite Pro (s300 or A300) - all have XP as an option and for XP 2GB ram would be sufficient. Go into the B2B section of the site and work from there.

Thanks for the advice/link nai....the €800 would be vat inclusive. Which would be the better option between vista and xp?..takin into regard the their use...Also would anyone advise going the Open Source route for software over Microsoft etc?

 

[nai]

I would advise XP - all the laptops would come with Vista pre-installed but you'll get a XP DVD/CD as well - just rebuild them with that. It's a more stable product and system resource requirements are lesser than Vista.

As regards Open Source - absolutely - but just use Open Source products you're comfortable with - Open Office is a prime example - great product but weigh that up with Students/Teachers requirement - eg will there be ECDL classes provided - MS Office is a component part !

Best thing to do is to sit down with whomever else has a participating interest and outline all that you these laptops to achieve (Business Requirements) - then look at the options.

 

[MB05]

I was in Powercity yesterday and they have some really good offers on laptops. They sell HP, Toshiba, Sony etc. They have a Sony Vaio reduced to €600 at the moment - decent spec 2GHZ Intel T3200 Processor, 3GB RAM, 250GB Hard Disk, 15.4" screen, built in webcam etc. The website also states that you get a free 3 in 1 printer with it.

If you are near a powercity and you are interested in buying there my advise to you would be to haggle! My brother works in the Coolock branch part time. He would usually give someone the best price he could but if this is already on sale with €50 off this weekend I doubt Head Office would allow them to knock much more off. He did say that if you were buying a few of them they could probably knock down the price especially if you didn't want the free printer.

You can PM me if you want me to see what he could get off them for you. All he needs to know is the model number you are interested in and how many. It's only a quote, there is no obligation to buy and you can use this to bargain with other retailers if you want to. I know if you have a quote from DID or Harvey Norman they will try to better it so I presume it works the other way round too.

 

[j26]

If they're teaching basic computing etc in school then they will be teaching just that - computer navigation, file management etc - very different on Apple versus Windows.

That is very true - the use to which you want to put the computers. In such a situation, obviously they would be unsuitable. However, they should be considered as an option.

As for Viruses - why listen to Sophos/McAfee etc. Just go ahead assuming that your Apple doesn't need Virus protection - it'll be fine.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/25/mac_malware_menace/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/16/mac_malware_concern/

Ah, but look at who is saying that? Ah yes, the people trying to sell anti-virus. That's a very credible source . The only current risk with viruses on the mac side is that you might insdvertenly pass one one to someone with a Windows machine.

My point here is that for a small school teaching network you are probably best going with the most readily available OS for the benefit of the students especially given that there is a restricted (but comfortable) budget in play.

Again, that depends on the planned usage.