Primary Teacher Laptops Windows or Mac - your opinion please

[twelvetree]

Hi All

 

Next financial year the headteacher wants to to start a rolling programme of replacing teacher laptops with Mac air. Personally I prefer Macs but I'm not entirely sure if this is the right way to go. Our children use Toshiba Windows laptops, HP Chromebooks and iPads and currently teachers have Toshiba Satellite Pro laptops (i3). Teachers constantly complain about how slow their laptops are, so I think this is one of the drivers behind replacing them with Macs.

 

I am concerned about these issues with the move:

• We have a Dell windows server with central drives used by everyone. I know I can add Macs to active directory but managing that further isn't totally clear. I have the network drives mapped to my mac but that doesn't always work seamlessly.
  
• Teachers having a different operating system to demonstrate to children how to do something like saving work etc.
  
• Teachers having to learn how to use Macs as opposed to windows.
  
• Cost (including cable accessories!)
  
• Interaction with Smartboards & Clevertouch boards - so far tests have shown problems with the touch side.
  

 

I would really appreciate your thoughts, whether anyone has made this move and if not Mac what alternative you suggest to deal with the poor performing current laptops.

 

Many thanks

[Kiest26]

Sounds like a waste of money to me. Surely those additional funds could be spent in other ways to improve your entire network?

[JackCPickup]

Whack SSDs and 4GB RAM in those laptops. Could it be anything besides the laptops causing the perceived slowness? GPOs misconfigured? Network bottlenecks?

[NB9457]

Personally I think Macs are great as standalone machines, but on a network, I'm not a fan, Apple don't spend much time or effort developing OSX Server which is now an APP and have even said in the past they aren't targeting this market. I've always found Windows PCs easier to manage and can be very quick if configured correctly.

 

As to the slowness, is this even the machines? An insight to what the school are using could paint a broader picture:

-What wireless system is in place?

-What switches are being used?

-What spec is the server (drive speeds, RAID config, OS, RAM, CPU)

-Is offline files in use?

-What OS are the current clients using?

[supawat1]

Mac is nice to have if you are willing to invest into device management tool such as Jamf Pro https://www.jamf.com/products/jamf-pro/

 

You can give your teachers with nice HP laptops and still save a lot of money by trading in your old laptops https://hp.tradeuptohp.com/gb/en/pages/tradein/home

[ComcenCraig]

I have to agree with what's been mentioned here already. I have doubts that the problem is the laptops and you could be spending a lot of money only to find that the problem still remains. It's far more likely to be issues with your network. NB9457 asked some really good questions. Assuming the I3 laptops have 500GB HDD and 4GB RAM they should be more than enough, especially in a primary school environment.

[twelvetree]

Hi

 

Thanks for your feedback. There are most definitely other issues affecting performance. The Dell Server 2008 is due to be renewed this summer and the set up I inherited is extremely random, a concoction of really strange gpos and batch files.

 

The laptops are still on windows 7, the plan is to move all to windows 10 as a rollout after the new server. The switches are HP1820. The wifi is fine, just upgraded to Ruckus. Feedback from the teachers are the laptops are slow when being used at home as well at school so thanks for the suggestions to upgrade to SSDs & extra RAM.

[JackCPickup]

Have they been specific about what they mean by slow? How are they logging on at home? Cached domain profile or something else?

 

Moving to Mac may bypass what's causing current slowness (GPOs, scripts), but as you're not likely to be a complete Mac school(?) it'd be best to hold off on those and get some time to tidy your server config.

[twelvetree]

They do log on at home with a cached domain profile. At home they do not have access to the server only through Foldr. It's more the case the time it takes open applications, documents etc.

[Lonix]

Hi All

Next financial year the headteacher wants to to start a rolling programme of replacing teacher laptops with Mac air. Personally I prefer Macs but I'm not entirely sure if this is the right way to go. Our children use Toshiba Windows laptops, HP Chromebooks and iPads and currently teachers have Toshiba Satellite Pro laptops (i3). Teachers constantly complain about how slow their laptops are, so I think this is one of the drivers behind replacing them with Macs.

I am concerned about these issues with the move:

• We have a Dell windows server with central drives used by everyone. I know I can add Macs to active directory but managing that further isn't totally clear. I have the network drives mapped to my mac but that doesn't always work seamlessly.
  
• Teachers having a different operating system to demonstrate to children how to do something like saving work etc.
  
• Teachers having to learn how to use Macs as opposed to windows.
  
• Cost (including cable accessories!)
  
• Interaction with Smartboards & Clevertouch boards - so far tests have shown problems with the touch side.
  

 

I would really appreciate your thoughts, whether anyone has made this move and if not Mac what alternative you suggest to deal with the poor performing current laptops.

 

Many thanks

 

Oh dear.. in this financially uncertain time especially when Education is being hit hard and there's no sign of it stopping.. If the HT wants to do that all you can do is present to him all the facts, pros and cons. It's up to the HT to decide.

 

You've raised some fair points because things are going to be different but Teachers will have to accept that. We've got some Toshiba laptops and with i3s - put SSDs (do one and they will notice the difference), they shouldn't be complaining about speed issues at all. I'd also state that the more expensive Apple device will be higher spec compared to those Toshiba laptops so you're not comparing like for like. You can put SSDs in them for peanuts.

 

Our laptops will in the next 8 months all have SSDs in them and when a laptop spec lower than those Toshibas runs like a new machine I can tell you that you've saved the School thousands. Problem is and this may sound a bit mean those Teachers will never be happy unless they have a new device every 6 months. You can buy lower cost laptops which offer nice spec, SSDs and still look pretty while having money left over. The HT is pretty much summing up why I have issues with Apple in Education. You've got slow equipment, everyones moaning so the answer is just to throw a ton of money at it - and we wonder why education is having cuts!!!!!!. Those Toshiba laptops with SSDs, 4GB ram and Windows 10 will run perfectly. How do I know? I've got one sitting right next to me.

[JackCPickup]

They do log on at home with a cached domain profile. At home they do not have access to the server only through Foldr. It's more the case the time it takes open applications, documents etc.

 

Will the HT let you upgrade one with SSD and RAM so they can see the benefit then decide? Those upgrades with a fresh Windows install will fly.

[twelvetree]

Thanks for your suggestions - I will get one upgraded with SSD & RAM - then I can present a much more cost effective alternative solution. You have all been very helpful, much appreciated.

[HTCPCP]

Couple of quick questions - the staff are complaining laptops are slow - how old are these laptops, and how recently have they been reimaged/rebuilt. A decent SSD will speed up the machines no end, but you need to find out what they are finding slow. Is it all teachers, or just some, as some staff think hybernate/sleep=shut down, and having 100 chrome tabs, SIMS, a weeks load of Smart Notebook files and a dozen word and excel files is essential, and moan about how slow their machine is, when in reality, it's just completely swamped by what they run.

 

I tend to get i5s for staff machines with a SSD over a 4-5 year life span, and i3s with SSD for student devices with a 3-4 year life span, before wear and tear and demands start to mean that you need to think about replacements.

[thimon]

+1 for SSD's and ensure 4GB RAM. Fresh install of Windows 10 and they'll think they've got a brand new laptop.

[HTCPCP]

+1 for SSD's and ensure 4GB RAM. Fresh install of Windows 10 and they'll think they've got a brand new laptop.

 

You need to make sure they are cleaned too, a bit of Isopropyl alcohol does that trick!

[thimon]

You need to make sure they are cleaned too, a bit of Isopropyl alcohol does that trick!

I definitely need to start cleaning the laptops that I work on. I swear half the time that I feel ill is because of all the muk that are on the keyboards and screens.

[jmak]

You need to make sure they are cleaned too, a bit of Isopropyl alcohol does that trick!

You'll probably find that speeds them up too 😀

 

So much is about perception - I had a "wow, new laptop" response last week. Er, no. It's the one you gave me 20 minutes ago, but has been cleaned. "But the track pad wasn't working." Perhaps it was too dirty....

[difinity]

Be careful using IPA to clean plastic, it can take the shine off permanently. AF foam cleaner does a better job without damaging the plastic.

[admars]

I remember a staff member moaning about their keyboard not working, demanding a new one, so i turned it upside down, shook it, a few paper clips, staples, bits of food, etc fell out, I asked her to try it, and funnily enough it worked. She then asked if I was going to clean up the debris that was on her desk! She didn't seem happy when I pointed out that it was her dead skin, bits of lunch etc so I wasn't going to.