CyberNerd

The whole 'locked down' IT systems of the past have had their day in schools. It's about time. Even the new Ofsted framework recognises this - they want school machines to become more like user owned equipment and have the management done on the network, rather than the device. I'm happy - we've been doing this for years.

Thanks - that looks like a much better fix.

The zip file path is not in 2.3. Did they put it back in on 2.4? I hope so!

hmm. A lot of ingress portals in Dover. Tempting.

I kept increasing max_execution_time, until it worked. I'm on about 15min now!

that's useful to know, thanks

I've been having the same issue on 2.3 - the upload works fine then it takes ages to unpack it. My theory is its because they changed from the unzip utility in the O/S to a php one that doesn't seem as efficient. The 'workaround' (assuming you php.ini is correct) is just to leave it unpacking and letting it error - it does eventually unpack larger SCORM files. You might need to increase the time you allow scripts to run as well.

Better tell the VAT man that the ICT equipment is being used for personal use.

Sounds like quite a poor management decision to me, I've no idea why they would encourage their staff to slack off in work time. They'll be asking you to unblock porn and gambling sites for them next.

I would suggest switchshop I know their engineers have experience in working with NHS and are cisco certified. One of their guys is an ex senior engineer from 3com. You won't go wrong with switchshop.

You'll end up recommending browsers and plugins. It will be up to the end user if they want to continue using XP. Chrome , Firefox and Citrix receiver are still supported on XPSP2 when this changes we'll have a few more problems.

I just don't upgrade OS's to every release - and nor do many of the people on this thread. This is starting to look like a personal attack now.

I try and get apps running on as many devices as possible. If someone ever buys an RT device then it is welcome in our school along with the androids (majority), ipads, chromebooks, osx's and windows computers. Like I said - I believe apps should be as vendor neutral as possible.

I'm not completely dismissing operating system GUI's - but you are right that I lean towards browser based applications because I feel that their is a lot to be gained from having educational apps in a platform independent environment. I believe it is good that children can learn using ICT and if they can do this on a variety of platforms then this is also good.

Learning how to use an operating system is not the objective in our school. We encourage staff and students to bring in their own device and learn on whatever they feel comfortable with. My primary role is to provide access to educational applications on whatever platform they choose. If our core school owned computers run Win7 in 5 yrs time and it is secure, manageable and provides end users with the application that they need then that would be great. I would prefer staff and students spend their time learning and using the applications that we provide than where MS decide to move a launcher. I see the operating system as a platform for launching apps, and it should be as simple as possible. CHange for change sake is rarely a good thing.

clearly not - it's about the support and the apps. If applications, bug fixes and driver support was available then I'd happily run those. Changing operating systems causes havoc for end users who don't like change. I try and minimise disruption for end users where I can so jumping on every windows release isn't my prerogative. I'd sooner spend more time making sure applications were available to users regardless of the operating system they use.

If it was supported and ran the apps we need then yes. I think operating systems are overrated, particularly on this forum. Users don't really care about their operating system - they just want to get things done with minimal fuss. My primary motivation for migrating from XP is because there is better support options for applications and drivers on win7.

understood. I think @dhicks is on the right lines with redirecting to /dev/null in your /etc/rsyslog.conf

This is all entirely feasible with Active Directory. with the low bandwidth and sporadic connections you will need to have a domain controller (or two) at each location - so it might be worth looking at alternatives which will be more cost effective and will use the same protocols and the same Microsoft tools to manage the domain.

Indeed. Windows 9 will be SP1 for windows 8 I'll still wait for SP1...or 2 most people can already use touchscreens, and you'll be able to plug the OS directly into the monitor before long

I've read and re-read your post - could you explain a bit further because I don't understand why you want the disk read-only. Have you thought about deleting profiles on login and just recreating them them from /etc/skel or am I on a different line from your thinking?

Some XP - almost identical situation to @localzuk

1GB for students on site and 30GB in the cloud !

This is pretty much where we are at. We us an OEM image, tweak it and then install it back onto the clients using FOG. We then activate it using the Lenovo public key either using VAMT or slmgr /ipk 237XB-GDJ7B-MV8MH-98QJM-24367 provided the BIOS knows it is a Lenovo the key works.

The majority of Nokia phones are cheap and nasty symbian devices. The effect MS has had on Nokia is quite apparent.