hotwired007 Posted March 26, 2008 Posted March 26, 2008 I've just signed up on here to ask about any other schools that are using Macs with XP... I have 30 Macbooks all runnning XP Pro without any hint of Mac OS X... Is there any other reason to keep OS X installed apart from it runs better than XP? I've not had any problems with running the Mac's apart from imaging them... I use Ghost to image to a removable HDD atm.. only problem is that everytime i image a Mac it takes about 1hr 15min to complete...
Guest Guest Posted March 26, 2008 Posted March 26, 2008 Is there any other reason to keep OS X installed apart from it runs better than XP? Because you've just payed 3x more for your mac than you would a PC? The only other reason is for the proprietary software; garageband, iLife, iThis, iThat etc
hotwired007 Posted March 26, 2008 Author Posted March 26, 2008 ok so there isn't any legal reason then... just personal preference i hate the fact that i've got 30 brilliant macs all bogged down with xp but the powers that be won't buy any more software to make the macs work on server 2003... if there is a free way i'd love to know i've only just started in my role here and i'm a lil stuck when it comes to combining Mac's on a windows 2003 domain...
Domino Posted March 26, 2008 Posted March 26, 2008 that does seem a bit crazy... Why buy the macbooks at all if you're not running OSX? Ah, just seen your response. Theres a number of threads on leveraging OSX on active directory and a guide in the wiki. however the best way is with a mac server, which could be run on a mac mini or similar, so would be cheaper than an xserve
hotwired007 Posted March 26, 2008 Author Posted March 26, 2008 that does seem a bit crazy... Why buy the macbooks at all if you're not running OSX? That would be the question.................................... only advantage i can find is that they have magnetic charge points... i work in a school and these laptops are used all day everyday... i started working here after they were bought... no one actually knows why they were bought...
crc-ict Posted March 26, 2008 Posted March 26, 2008 Because you've just payed 3x more for your mac than you would a PC? The only other reason is for the proprietary software; garageband, iLife, iThis, iThat etc And the fact that they are blooming good laptops. Four of my schools have laptop trolleys, one of them being MacBooks. I get far less problems with the MacBooks than all the others - the battery life is better, bits don't fall off, the screens don't die after what seems like two minutes (like about 6 Acers I can think of...) Admittedly, running them with XP seems half-hearted and expensive, but I can see the benefits of software compatibility - it took my lot ages to realise that most of the ed software in school was Windows only and wouldn't work.
richardp Posted March 26, 2008 Posted March 26, 2008 Hi, I have 3 macbook pros running OS X and Windows XP and 16 imacs running OS X that are about to be imaged with XP as well. With OS X you can authenticate user accounts with a Windows Server and do some file sharing but thats about it. To do any Active Directory like policies etc... you need an apple server (which could be just a mac mini with the server software installed). If you are not using OS X then quite honestly I don't see the point of the purchase. What exactly do you mean by "the powers that be won't buy any more software to make the macs work on server 2003... " ? What isn't working ?. If they are just running XP only then they should just act as windows computers and work as normal with server 2003. Richard.
hotwired007 Posted March 27, 2008 Author Posted March 27, 2008 What i ean is they wont pay any more money so that the Macs can use OSX and connect with our domain... like everyone has said i need an apple server for them to connect through but the school will not buy it... they work perfectly... incidently i had to return a few of them under warrenty to PC World... recieved a nice message on them: "The backspace key can be used to emulate the delete key in combinating with the FN key. This will work fine withing OSX and Windows but not on the login screens" My question is... I sent 3 back with keyboard and battery errors... i have another 27 working perfectly USING the CTRL + ALT + BACKSPACE conbination to log in... After re-imaging the ones with the new keyboards and batterys they also work fine... Is this the only incident where the 'TechGuys' seem a little less 'Techie'?
mullet_man Posted March 27, 2008 Posted March 27, 2008 Quick question to those with MacBooks, are they the 13inch ones? As we have 30 with BootCamp and XP, but for some reason have sound issues in Windows, it just does not work, although it does work when logging in (logon sound) then after that nothing. Any ideas?
GrumbleDook Posted March 27, 2008 Posted March 27, 2008 There are a number of methods of making life easier with using Macs on a windows network without having to use OS X Server. A good number of them have previously been mentioned in the Mac Forums on this site but to quickly cover them ... Macs will bind to AD to allow you to authenticate and mount home areas. To mount additional drives you just have to use login hooks (login scripts) and there are some good examples of this around, including on MacEnterprise.org. Login hooks are also handy for setting environmental variables depending on user accounts. By using the User Template, you can define the default setup of user accounts. This includes pre-registration of software, the look and feel, etc. Robert Moir (aka Roberto) has produced some good guides to this effect. A Mac Mini running OS X Server works ... and works well. We opted for the unlimited licence purely because we knew we would expand and it was worth it. Apple Remote Desktop is the other admin tools you hear about to, and a number of members make good use of that. You could also look at MacAdministrator to do your admin. It does not require a Mac Server ... and the application files, etc can actually be hosted on a windows server. I used to use this at a previous school with great results. However ... you cannot spend more money on anything ... but it you could then the above would be nice and handy. Speak to Apple Education ... they may be able to help you out. They are far better at helping education out directly in the US than they are in the UK ... over here it tends to be a case of getting assistance from Apple Solution Experts.
hotwired007 Posted March 27, 2008 Author Posted March 27, 2008 Quick question to those with MacBooks, are they the 13inch ones? As we have 30 with BootCamp and XP, but for some reason have sound issues in Windows, it just does not work, although it does work when logging in (logon sound) then after that nothing. Any ideas? Yes they are the 13.3" variants... 1.83/2x256/60/COMBO:WHITE-GBR EMC#2092 All mine are vanila installs with XP only... i did a raw install of OSX, then installed bootcamp, made the driver CD and then formatted the entire HDD and did a fresh install of windows only and then used the driver cd to install the drivers... then installed all the other software... the only issue i have is that you cannot change the screen brightness from the taskbar anymore... (you can adjust it from the intel graphics menu though) so its not a big issue... i set it to the middle and everything seems to be fine...
mullet_man Posted March 27, 2008 Posted March 27, 2008 Ours are the 2.0/2x512/80/Combo-GBR EMC No:2139 What sound cards drivers are you using??
hotwired007 Posted March 27, 2008 Author Posted March 27, 2008 the ones that came on the bootcamp disk - RealTek High Definition Audio Driver 07/05/2007, 5.10.0.5440 have you tried everest to find out what audio chipset you are using?
mullet_man Posted May 12, 2008 Posted May 12, 2008 the ones that came on the bootcamp disk - RealTek High Definition Audio Driver 07/05/2007, 5.10.0.5440 have you tried everest to find out what audio chipset you are using? Not exactly, the strange thing is the sounds works once (e.g. logon) and then after that nothing. Will try and find out whats on them.
HodgeHi Posted May 12, 2008 Posted May 12, 2008 If you are installing the drivers manually then you need to be sure that you are installing the correct ones, although i think it won't install the drivers from a package as Windows will say that it don't match the hardware but you can still specify anyway. The bootcamp CD contains drivers for ALL Mac hardware not just the ones for the machine that it was made with as far as i am aware
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