Portable computers of some sort for school

I have an NC10 and just waiting for 2 schools to actually give go-ahead to buy 30 of them.

(unless something else comes out thats cheaper and just as good)

regards

Simon

Presumably these netbooks are used as stand-alones and not networked machines?
If so, how does it work with different children using them all the time and not being able to save work onto their space on the network?

We're using a set of 16 NC10 in Geogrpahy and they are very happy with them. They were in the other day saying how much faster & better they performed than a standard laptop trolley. Battery life seems good to.

We are currently ordering another 5 sets of 16 to use across the school as they are so good.

FYI we have an HP managed wireless solution as it fitted in with our core switch.

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Originally Posted by witch

Presumably these netbooks are used as stand-alones and not networked machines?
If so, how does it work with different children using them all the time and not being able to save work onto their space on the network?

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All of the netbooks we use are on the network, and are generally very reliable. - There is no problem with 15 being switched on at once and all logging in at the same time, and all save to the network and browse the internet fine.

In our younger year groups the machines logon automatically with a shared user account - we found this can cause issues as it never gives the network a chance to start. To get round this the user account doesn't have a logon script, instead there is a batch file on the local machine that runs in startup, which waits a few seconds, pings the server, if it gets a response it then calls the logon script from the network, if there s no response it assumes the laptop is at home and stops.

We use an HP procurve managed wireless network.


CPLTD - I will pm you details once we've finalised the exact numbers and accessories etc.

Steve

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Originally Posted by CPLTD

The Samsung NC10 and the Dell 2100's are both superb solutions, I would stay clear of the NC20 as performance against the NC10 is lower,

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Thats kinda thrown a spanner in the works for us.. as we are looking at buying 60 NC20's .. We ordered 1 to begin with (which arrived this wk) and first impressions are very good.. i think the 12.1" screen is perfect.

I know it runs on a VIA CPU as opposed to the Atom on the NC10 .. but Office 2k3 runs great.. and it handled kar2ouche over wifi no probs. It couldnt/wouldnt play bbc iplayer back in full screen though. espresso video clips played back fine aswell.

I settled on the NC20 because of the screen size. A member of staff is testing it out for a week.. and if all goes well.. we will stick with them.

There are 2 things I dont like about the NC20 at the moment... and that is ther mouse button.. its just one long button and the second is the price.. £330 is bordering on laptop land..

anyone else using the NC20's ??

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Originally Posted by steveg

All of the netbooks we use are on the network, and are generally very reliable. - There is no problem with 15 being switched on at once and all logging in at the same time, and all save to the network and browse the internet fine.

Steve

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I see they appear to come with XP home - did you take it off and put pro on them then?

For the ones looking at the NC-10s, TheAngryTechnician (A Member here), has written a little blog post/review/complaint rant of them after "school use", you can read it here: Samsung NC-10: just not tough enough for school The Angry Technician

Yea, we re-installed them with xp pro, just needed to buy an upgrade licence.

Steve

Recently replaced my Acer Aspire One with a Samsung NC10, but if it were me I would go with the Acers for student use.

In terms of build quality, there isn't much you can do about kids picking off keys, but the keyboard on the Acer is at least pretty easy to swap out. The main weakness of the NC10 is that the cover around the display tends to flex a lot more and is thinner, whereas the Acer is much more solid.

The Acer also has a significant cost advantage for what is essentially the same spec machine. With what you save with a Linux unit (you would have to upgrade both to XP Pro anyway) you could cough up for a spare extended battery for each unit and still save money over a Samsung solution.

Wireless on the Acer appeared to be slightly more sensitive than the NC10, I certainly preferred the interface.

Only thing that swung it to the NC10 for me was the matte screen and slightly bigger keyboard, 2 things the kids are not likely to appreciate mcuh.