Windows 7 Ultimate in use in schools?

[gmiller]

Hi

 

Currently starting to investigate\plan for migration to Windows 7 \ Server 2008 from fully xp \ 2003 domain and hit a problem straight away. We are an independant school and usually just purchase licences as and when we need them; we are not part of any schools agreement. I contacted an agency, well a national government body here in scotland, where we get education prices to ask for prices for windows 7 pro and ultimate and was told that the Ultimate Licences are not suitable for use in schools. They are for Student and Home use only? Is this correct?

My plan was to install Windows 7 Pro on all desktops but then use Ultimate on the small number of staff laptops to make use of bitlocker.

 

Im confused, can anyone advise if what i have been told is true? Is anyone running Ultimate in school on school networks? or is it Pro only?

Thanks

gmiller

[featured_spectre]

Get Windows 7 enterprise. Essentialky the same as ultimate, but without the games.

[Ric_]

IIRC there isn't a volume license version of Ultimate which is probably why you couldn't get pricing. nephilim is corerct in that Enterprise has all the same features and that is the version you want to go for because of features like Bitlocker. The catch is, though, that Windows 7 Enterprise is only available a Software Assurance benefit which attracts an annual fee. By far the most cost effective way of making the move is to get a Schools Agreement but you should wait until the licensing model changes. More details on this can be seen at Licensing changes for schools - there's good news coming at BETT - Microsoft UK Schools blog - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

[riffleman]

Ric is correct; there is no volume license for Ultimate. However there's nothing to stop you purchasing it for a handful of PCs and it is valid for use in schools, you will just be loaded with a premium to buy a license for software you won't get the full benefit of. IMHO I wouldnt bother with the increase in cost to use Ultimate, unless you have a need for specific features that arent available with Professional.

[sted]

unless you need bitlocker (so laptops really) why not use pro?

[jamesfed]

Ultimate praticly is Enterprise edition - like someone has already said its only realy ideal for Notebook if you need BitLocker unless you want the features like Federated Search and Branch Cachce (full run down at this link).

 

As were under a schools agreement we do run all our Windows 7 PCs with Enterprise but thats only to keep images down to a min.

[Arthur]

was told that the Ultimate Licences are not suitable for use in schools. They are for Student and Home use only? Is this correct?

That is not quite true. My school purchased over 50 new staff laptops last summer from Dell with licenses for Windows 7 Ultimate (also downgradable to XP Pro). There were several reasons we did this:

 

1) There wasn't any money available for a Schools Agreement.

2) We wanted BitLocker / BitLocker To Go, the MUI packs (for MFL) and AppLocker which are only available in the Enterprise and Ultimate editions.

3) The price difference over the Professional edition was negligible.

[Arthur]

The only bad thing about Ultimate is that it is only supported by Microsoft until 13/01/2015 versus 14/01/2020 for Enterprise. Something to keep in mind if you do not plan on upgrading to Windows 8 within that timeframe.