Netbooks on the domain

[inhousetech]

Hi all

 

We have a school that has a wireless LAN ad is looking at getting some netbooks. However the netbooks are likely to have Windows 7 starter, or equivilent. I assume that most of the netbook's wouldn't be able to support a higher versi of the OS? They arent happy with just encryption and want higher security, such as RADIUS. Has anyone else come across this issue, and if so how did you navigate this?

 

CP

[Mr.Ben]

As I understand that the starter version cannot be added to a domain.

 

The one that I purchased recently had XP home on them, and I then had to upgrade them to XP Pro. I have tried Windows 7 Pro, and to be honest with 2Gb of RAM it runs well. You do have to keep control of the Services running though, and ensure that the ones you don't need are disabled or removed (anything from adobe/java/quicktime/itunes/flash and drivers etc).

 

They won't run Aero (But then I immediatly put all the graphics settings down). After all this it was ok, a little slow on the login, but fine for browsing and document editing!

[inhousetech]

Thanks for your reply.

 

Which netbook was it that you used?

 

I assume that the content filtering, etc was then dealt with via the normal network routes?

 

CP

[Tricky_Dicky]

I'm running 60 Toshiba NB200s with XP Pro on them and they work great.

 

Not the fastest things in the world but the teachers are happy with the fact that they have a full days battery life.

[danrhodes]

We run some Acer Aspire's and they are great, a full days battery, as said before they arent the sharpest knife in the drawer but teacher and pupils seem to like them, also they are at £200 :-)

 

D

[Alis_Klar]

did you just stump up for the added licence cost of XP Pro/Win 7 Pro?

 

Is there anyone selling Netbooks with Pro version of Windows? (think Dell and RM are but they usually are not cheap)

[somabc]

Windows 7 Enterprise normally works fine on Netbooks (ie Atom with 1GB of RAM)

[Alis_Klar]

thanks for that but isn't enterprise the most expensive version? The goal is to buy as many netbooks for the budget but we depend heavily on group policy so would like to retain domain membership

[garrya100]

Win 7 Enterprise is only available to you if you're a volume licence customer (Schools Agreement or Select etc) so you would need to buy Pro licences to connect them to a domain if you're not a VL customer.

 

If you're a VL customer you buy them with Win7 starter as the schools agreement is an upgrade licencing scheme.

 

I have a fleet of Dell Latitude 2100's running Win 7 Ent on the domain and they work fine, but its not the cheapest option.

Edited July 21, 2010 by garrya100

[K.C.Leblanc]

thanks for that but isn't enterprise the most expensive version? The goal is to buy as many netbooks for the budget but we depend heavily on group policy so would like to retain domain membership

 

Ultimate is the most expensive, enterprise is basicaly the same as business. You will need enterprise, business or ultimate (or Vista/XP business) to use them on a domain, there's no getting round that.

 

Do you have a Microsoft select agreement, some of them cover upgrading to business weight OS.

[garrya100]

The biggest difference between business and enterprise is that you don't get Bitlocker with business (or Pro) but do Ent. (there are some other minor differences)

If you don't want Bitlocker than it's a wash. If you do want Bitlocker and you're not a VL client then you have to buy ulimate.