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."

Re:The most important question is ...

[Alien54]

what are you going to do with physical security? 1000 persons walking around with laptops is going to be sweet for any thief.

You get out a large 1.5 inch/ 4cm drill, put a hole through the laptop case, and attach a large chain with an appropriate weight or lockset to the laptop using said hole. Bolt the other end of the chain to a desktop or tabletop. Use very long chanins.

This ensures that thieves won't want to steal them, among other things.

;-)

Re:...Wow.

[(H)elix1]

This is a horrible idea. Crime in the area around my first college was bad, I'd hate to think what it would be like with _every_ student carrying several hundred dollars worth of pawnable hardware.

Heh. Reminds me of a customer site where folks would chain their thinkpad to the desk using one of those laptop lock cables. All safe and secure, right? Came back after a three day weekend and found the bones of several laptops - battery, hard drive, DVD, and keyboard removed with the RAM missing. Not unlike a nice car left in a bad neighborhood.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

simple.

[GoatPigSheep]

Simple. Provide everyone with a firearm as well...

Re:The most important question is ...

[Y0tsuya]

Did you hear that thump? It's the sound of a joke sailing over your head and smacking the wall behind you.

Re:you're sunk

[Anonymous Coward]

"We're going to liberate Iraq".

"Umm... boss.. how we gonna do that?"

"Don't bother me with details, I HAVE VISIONS"

Re:Remote Desktop

[Firehed]

Textbooks don't require technical support after you sit on one in a drunken stupor after a late night of partying.

Re:Lock them down?

[jb.hl.com]

The difference is that Nobel Laureates don't happily sit on NeoPets for hours, find the most malware-tastic websites around and install some random MSN block checker trojan because whether they've been blocked on MSN Messenger is the most important thing in the world, whereas college students do.