My campus lab just got new computers

Current configs of the U-M's Campus Computing Site computers (the GX280s are brand new as of Thursday):

Dell Optiplex GX280 SFF - deployed in September 2004
3.2 GHz Intel P4 with Hyperthreading (800 MHz FSB)
1 GB DDR
Dell 1704FP 17" flat-panel monitors

Dell Optiplex GX270 - deployed in October 2003
1.8 GHz Intel P4 (400 MHz FSB)
512 MB RAM
Dell 1804FP 18" flat-panel monitors

Apple PowerMac G5 - deployed in October 2003
Dual 2.0 GHz G5 processors (1 GHz FSB)
1 GB RAM
ATI Radeon 9600 graphics
dual Apple Studio flat-panel monitors (17" and 15")

Combined with the awesome suites of software available to every student (Photoshop CS, Dreamweaver MX 2004, AutoCAD, Maple, Mathematica, Acrobat 6.0 Professional, MS Office 2003, etc.), those processors are put to good use.

I have my choice of using any of the three when I go to work at the site.

 

[screw3d]

My school also has lots of awesome computers

 

[Taggart]

And they will be slower than sh!t in no time!

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: Taggart
And they will be slower than sh!t in no time!

Mmmm, Spyware

 

[aswedc]

I'm at work using some crappy Dell PIII But my next lab is in the art building, which has two labs full of G5s

 

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged

Originally posted by: Taggart
And they will be slower than sh!t in no time!

Mmmm, Spyware

Security policy is extra tight on these systems...going to a Big-10 college means your IT staff is top-notch, and both the Windows and MacOS environments are ship-shape. No spyware here.

The Macs essentially perform a reload to core system software upon every logout. The PCs are a bit more complicated, but it's pretty tough to use any software that's not already deployed in the autoloaded image.

 

[screw3d]

IF your school's system admins are competent, they'll perform a cleanup once in a while and don't let users have admin priviledges. I'm surprised that the PCs in my school labs are still running very nicely considering the amount of computer-illiterate people they have here

 

[BHeemsoth]

Alot of schools and universities have begun using software known as deepfreeze, which essentially re-images the hard drive to original configuration upon rebooting. My old high school utilized this in some of the labs, and it worked wonders at keeping the machines in good shape, compared to the machines in the library which utilized no form of protection at all.

-Brian

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: rpbri2886
Alot of schools and universities have begun using software known as deepfreeze, which essentially re-images the hard drive to original configuration upon rebooting. My old high school utilized this in some of the labs, and it worked wonders at keeping the machines in good shape, compared to the machines in the library which utilized no form of protection at all.

-Brian

we used one called Centurion at my school, hardwired it into the HD, coudl only be unlocked with a Key

worked like you siad and when the comp restarted anything that was placed on the HD was eraced

worked pretty well

 

[MrCodeDude]

OHIO STATE > * > MICHIGAN

Go Bucks!

 

[cronos]

Originally posted by: rpbri2886
Alot of schools and universities have begun using software known as deepfreeze, which essentially re-images the hard drive to original configuration upon rebooting. My old high school utilized this in some of the labs, and it worked wonders at keeping the machines in good shape, compared to the machines in the library which utilized no form of protection at all.

-Brian

some computer labs here are using Altiris. basically the same thing.

 

[eigen]

Originally posted by: saxguy

Originally posted by: rpbri2886
Alot of schools and universities have begun using software known as deepfreeze, which essentially re-images the hard drive to original configuration upon rebooting. My old high school utilized this in some of the labs, and it worked wonders at keeping the machines in good shape, compared to the machines in the library which utilized no form of protection at all.

-Brian

some computer labs here are using Altiris. basically the same thing.

I use ghost on my lab.Total time push the image to all 73 computers about 15 minutes.Nice and brnad spanking new.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: rpbri2886
Alot of schools and universities have begun using software known as deepfreeze, which essentially re-images the hard drive to original configuration upon rebooting. My old high school utilized this in some of the labs, and it worked wonders at keeping the machines in good shape, compared to the machines in the library which utilized no form of protection at all.

-Brian

Unfortunately, this makes the machines prime targets for worms and other mass-replicating malware. A worm can go in, start spreading, disappear after reboot, and reappear through a new infection all over again. And the IT division does nothing about this, thinking that this "protection" will allow them to avoid installing security patches.

 

[esun]

We've got similar systems (though not quite as good I think) at my school. They've also got Doom 3 installed on them all (also WC3, CS, etc.), meaning it's easy to setup a nice little LAN gaming session.

 

[TitanDiddly]

Why oh why do institutions bother with fast PCs? For all that hardcore word processing, I take it.