New computers at my school

[Thomas]

Of course Windows 10 isn't going to make that group of teachers any happier. I mean the change to the ribbon interface in MS Office nearly grounded to a halt our government's literal ability to function. Going from Windows 7 to a newer OS is going to be a...challenge.

[Tank]

48 minutes ago, mrwicked said:

sounds like you need to get a new IT guy.

all he's doing is a. pissing off his clients (the teachers) and slowing down their productivity, and b. adding more work for himself and slowing down his productivity when he gets inundated with inevitable help requests.

at some point you just have to suck it up and pay a little extra to make everyone comfortable and productive. 

i completely agree. this is where i wish apple would play ball with us and offer something more than a $50 discount (that's the discount i get as part of their apple education program. $50 off from a $1400 computer isn't much of an effort on their part.). our tech guy pointed out that we just can't afford new macs, and i get that. i'm not sure that switching to a completely new system for all of us is the best answer, either.

should be a really fun august and september here! "hi, erwin, it's me, tank, with another question . . ."

[mrwicked]

yeah the second he sends out the simple email with:

"alright everyone, there is a vulnerability discovered in firefox. i need everyone to update their machines. it's as easy as opening a terminal and running %> sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install firefox."

response: wut?

Edited May 26, 2016 by mrwicked

[Thomas]

4 minutes ago, mrwicked said:

yeah the second he sends out the simple email with:

"alright everyone, there is a vulnerability discovered in firefox. i need everyone to update their machines. it's as easy as opening a terminal and running %> sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install firefox."

response: wut?

It isn't that bad thankfully.  It won't be like they are running production servers.

[nate]

Yea there is a package manager ui and update ui.

[mrwicked]

yeah i figured as much. i run ubuntu everywhere but never use any kinds of UI for package management.

[Thomas]

Makes me wonder. The saving grace of the Windows Enterprise is the whole active directory ecosystem. Microsoft Exchange to a lesser degree with users' rather strong love/hate relationships towards Outlook. But yeah AD is really powerful. If the school doesn't have the funds for a Mac they might not have anything resembling a Microsoft domain running or the centralized management that comes with it. Or someone to run it properly as they don't run themselves. If that is the case then the advantages of running Windows diminishes greatly. If however that would change then the Dells could easily then be converted into Windows systems. Conversely on Linux the systems in the proper hands could be made to last a very long time if even this purchase of laptops pushed the budget into money hell.

[mrwicked]

^ agreed. AD is great, but if they don't need it, then don't bother with it.

my view tends to be: if you can survive without windows or macs (i.e. you're not locked into it) , then why not just run chromebooks? they obviously aren't already locked into linux  (i.e. some teaching software that only runs on linux), since it would be a new platform for them.

what are they gaining by getting an entire laptop? just get chromebooks, use google business class docs/email/storage and be done with it. 

Edited May 27, 2016 by mrwicked

[Thomas]

Just thoughts. With Chromebooks you are essentially locked into ChromeOS by the BIOS protections. There are ways to work around the protections but they are hackish at best. Laptops give you an option to completely change ecosystems. And the devices themselves aren't exactly powerhouses. The Dells they are getting certainly are a step up from the typical ChromeBook. Depending on the deal they arranged with their vendor they may also have a superior maintenance contract over anything available with Chromebooks.

[mrwicked]

Yeah but if everything is done with a browser, who cares about the underlying OS? And I hardly doubt they are doing anything that needs much processing power. Just seems like a waste. If the laptop dies, you have to deal with it (order a new one, set it all up, import backups if they backed anything up, which most people don't, etc). So that adds to the IT guys workload, as well as the teacher's time and productivity. 

With a chromebook, if it dies you just grab a new chromebook off the pile in the closet, log in and and you don't lose any time, data or productivity.

I think we are probably giving more thought to this than the IT guy in question.

[Tank]

On May 27, 2016 at 11:49 AM, mrwicked said:

Yeah but if everything is done with a browser, who cares about the underlying OS? And I hardly doubt they are doing anything that needs much processing power. Just seems like a waste. If the laptop dies, you have to deal with it (order a new one, set it all up, import backups if they backed anything up, which most people don't, etc). So that adds to the IT guys workload, as well as the teacher's time and productivity. 

With a chromebook, if it dies you just grab a new chromebook off the pile in the closet, log in and and you don't lose any time, data or productivity.

I think we are probably giving more thought to this than the IT guy in question.

i think you're right. the toughest part in this transition is that we're not getting the new laptops until we report back in august. trying to get our rooms and lessons ready is work enough; now add to that the work to learn a completely new OS for most of us. not looking forward to this and would've preferred getting the new comps in june so we'd have time to learn them over the summer.

[Blarg]

You should tell the tech guy you found a cheap solution. Typewriter and paper. 

[Tank]

If it weren't for our grade book being online, I'd seriously consider pulling out the ol smith-corona.

and no, that's not a metaphor.

[Tank]

got our laptops last monday and got the basic setup done so we can print and access the internet. it's all so foreign to me as compared to what i'm used to seeing with a mac. disappointed that we don't have a slot to insert discs (watching movies will now be a huge challenge), and there's no iTunes. i asked the IT guy about iTunes and whether it could be downloaded, and he looked at me and said "huh, i don't really know." so i went and found a place where i can download it, clicked the button, but it won't load. music that i play off of discs in class is no longer available, so i'm gonna have to get this fixed pretty soon.

i noticed that there is some sort of music playing system similar to iTunes already installed on the computer, but i'm not going to repurchase music i already own on iTunes to play on this other system.

we downloaded microsoft office suite, so i can at least create documents in a familiar format. 

waiting for him to bring me a connector piece so i can hook up the dell to my overhead projector. then all i have to do is recreate every power point presentation i've already made in Keynote! fortunately it's only about 15 of them.

also, i have angelswin bookmarked but there's a weird thing about it. i can't scroll all the way down to the very bottom of the page, and clicking "next unread thread" is difficult. anyone got any ideas on how to address that? i tried expanding the viewing size of the page, but that didn't help at all.

[Thomas]

Can you take a screenshot of the problem and post it here?

[nate]

@Tank Keynote can't open PPT files?

Did you try adjusting the text zoom?  Are you using Chrome?

[Tank]

2 hours ago, nate said:

@Tank Keynote can't open PPT files?

Did you try adjusting the text zoom?  Are you using Chrome?

haven't tried to import keynote presentations yet as i'm honestly not sure how to go about it. i'm thinking i'll probably either email things in keynotes or put it on a flash drive and hope i can transfer it to the dell.

i'm not sure if i know how to adjust the text zoom. in this system there's a little rectangular box and when i clicked it, it made the viewing of aw.com larger and wider, but there's still some issue with being able to scroll all the way down as well as quitting the browser when i'm done.

yes, we're using chrome. i've used it in the past and am familiar with it, though i know safari much better.

[nate]

Hold down control and scroll your mouse wheel forward to increase the size of text, zoom out to decrease.  I think Keynote should open powerpoint files without doing anything special.

[Redondo]

Try switching to Mozilla Firefox as your browser. You will need to install AdBlock plus to view without all the ads.

Screen size can be controlled like nate said or use Control and - or + button at the same time.