This looks good

[Dos_Box]

http://www.altiris.com/Products/Soft...nSolution.aspx

Roll out software instantly, and runs is a sort of virtual enviroment. It runs locally unlike Citrix and I am going to look into this a little more I think.

[mark]

I have a lot of applications but no where near a hundred let alone 'hundreds'. Granted the ease of app management sounds attractive but I think dedicating a sever and the undoubted high cost of Software Virtualisation Solution makes this high spending school friendly only.

[Dos_Box]

We have 'lots' of software and often have to install 5 packages at once with just a days notice. It sounds ideal for my purposes.

[ajbritton]

No such thing as a free lunch. My bet is you will still have to go through some process akin to repackaging to get the package into a form suitable for deployment via SVS. You may as well just repackage and deploy with GP.

[Ric_]

Dos_Box is in an unusual situation in that he supports training rooms for teacher advisors. They are very fussy and the range of software is greater.

The first time I read about this software (a couple of weeks ago) I thought it might be something that was good for him but I couldn't see any advantage under most conditions.

[OutToLunch]

If anyone feels like experimenting with this at home, they do give a 'Personal Edition' away for free for personal/non commercial use. I've been testing it for a couple of days now since I first came across an article about it on PCMag...

http://www.svsdownloads.com/ has the Personal Edition download plus a selection of pre prepared apps for you to play with.

The Juice community is also well worth having a poke around on if you have any problems, or even if you're just curious - http://juice.altiris.com/

[alan-d]

http://www.altiris.com/Products/SoftwareVirtualizationSolution.aspx

Roll out software instantly, and runs is a sort of virtual enviroment. It runs locally unlike Citrix and I am going to look into this a little more I think.

Have you found a pricing structure for this yet? The list of UK suppliers all seem to miss this off their web sites and I'm still waiting for email replies.

With well over 200 different education titles this may be useful to us.

[OutToLunch]

There's also SoftGrid if you haven't seen it before...

http://www.softricity.com/products/index.asp

Came across an in depth thread on random techie message board about the differences between it and SVS while I was looking for something completely different. If it looks interesting to anyone I'll try and dig up the thread for comparison.

Only mention of SVS pricing I've found is

Altiris is pricing the Software Virtualization Solution at £18.90 per node with volume discounts available. The company is also providing a free personal use license; this could prove attractive, for example, to organisations that have taken advantage of Microsoft's Home Use Program.

from http://www.it-director.com/article.php?articleid=13210

If you haven't played with it yet, it's worth reading up on the effects of virtualisation on user data created while using the app to make sure you don't end up losing things left right and centre...

[Dos_Box]

I've been running it today. It's quite fantastic, and of great use.