john2k5

I gave them ubuntu VM's and putty with an IP per student. I modified the sudoers file to restrict the students to only being able to run the needed commands for the assignment (sudo apt-get install tree and a few others) and no-one found a way to break out yet. All in all, it's been a success, our students loved the module. Snapshots are all restored ready for next year.

Charles will tell you exactly what is getting blocked. Just remember to set the upstream proxy to the student proxy with login credentials. [Edit: Didn't read the date, I'm sure you're sorted by now, but still a very handy program for future reference]

3-4 minutes? Our students are in within 30 seconds on our oldest generic 5 year old RM laptops. First login takes around 90 seconds, while it builds the profile from the default one. I suspect that a lot, if not all of it, is down to your environment. I should have mentioned that Oblytile helped with 8, we had the same issue with the start screen looking bland and finding icons hard to find. Windows 8.1's colouring helped this no end and removed the need for it though.

Our migration from 7 to 8 threw up a few issues with roaming profiles. (Why didn't they call them username.V3 if it won't talk to the V2 profiles properly???) We just redirected the 8 profiles to another share until we were ready to phase out 7 completely. We had to rip out all of the "Metro" apps with a powershell script and disable the store via GPO, because of productivity issues with giving kids metro apps, not because they didn't work well. 8.1 was a breeze. Everything played nice except IE11, which took a little bit of tweaking for Active-X content and a few sites being forced into compatibility mode. The new start screen layouts are a welcome addition to Group Policy. DFS and Deduplication work really well in Server 2012 R2. Our staff in general (bar the one or two that didn't get on with 7 either) have had no complaints and the kids just got on with it from the word go. 8.1 (and 8) are a massive improvement over Windows 7 in almost every aspect, live with the Start Screen for a week or two and you'll learn to love it. Everything is at your fingertips. I don't see this whole "Touch OS" rubbish, sorry, it works extremely well with a mouse and keyboard and is actually FAR more productive once you are using it daily. The Metro apps aren't needed in schools, but it's really not a lot of work to disable them. A powershell script before sysprepping and away you go. On a side note, we have also repurposed some old netbooks and made use of Windows 8.1's (limited but very useful) Kiosk mode, we now have 20 (written off!) translator netbooks locked into the free Translate Plus app for our EAL students to use. 8 hour battery life and a boot in under 30 seconds, what's not to love? Profile issues are rare (almost non-existent for any wired machines), the few that we have are all down to either users not logging off correctly, or our aging wireless system along with our older laptops (hoping to replace our 4/5 year old laptops and buy a brand new Ruckus system next year)

Thats a matter of opinion. We rolled out 8, Server 2012 and Office 2013 within 2 weeks of launch across our school. 8.1 is now everywhere. Pupils love it. Staff love it (after the initial shock! ). Even our 5 year old laptops love it! No drawbacks whatsoever. On 8 we used oblytile to brighten things up a bit as people complained it was "a bit dull". Now we just leave 8.1 to manage the tiles. Deduplication in server 2012 is amazing. To be fair, we did the same with 7 and server 2008 with no issues either. The way I see it is that schools should be at the bleeding edge wherever possible. If you buy a consumer laptop now, its at least win8, pointless using the older os in school when its outdated for home use. Luckily, we have a head who is supportive and trusts us to just get on with it and the staff have to "adapt or die" Harsh but effective

No problem. Thanks for the reply. I think it would have to be a significant increase or i'd be selling myself short. Just thought id ask the question.

Is that salary negotiable? I'm based in Stoke on the same pay grade (top of scale now) but would be looking for higher grade if I was to consider moving. Thanks

This seems to be exactly what I'm looking for, any chance of posting it? Thanks

Hi, I know this is an old thread, but this seems to be exactly what I am looking for to deploy firefox in my school. I have looked at FrontMotion Firefox, and have had some relative success with it, but after stumbling across this thread Logistix seems to be the perfect solution and much easier to deploy. Unfortunately, all the download links are missing now. Has this project been discontinued? If so, does anyone have the last version of the msi floating around that I could pinch? I'm not too fussed about future updates, just need something that works. Thanks, John

Thanks for the head's up! Shame it came after I'd made my logos... Never mind, a couple of those new ones may come in handy for future use.

I also edited some of the icons and created some of my own in the same format, to suit our school, which i would like to share with the community. Feel free to modify these images in any way for your own use. Thanks, John

Hi, I was also looking for a set of icons representing school subjects. Your icons came in extremely handy, along with another set i found with the same sort of format while I was searching. I have attached the other set, I do not have the name of the author to credit him/her, but if anyone recognises them and wants credit, or them removing, please let me know. Thanks, John