jsacre

We are a secondary school with about 1200 pupils, all Windows systems. We are however on the move to GAPPS, but we are not abandoning Windows, just scaling back our operations. In terms of desktops around the school, we normally buy refurb Core2 duo based HP machines and whack an SSD in them, these are great for media related stuff but to be honest pretty overkill for most tasks. our intentions are to gradually replace most of these machines with carts of Chromebooks scattered across the school site, where teachers/students can use them within the confines of their own classroom and not be restricted to booking out IT suites. For most tasks ChromeBooks tick all the boxes where the only exceptions being media and ICT where local storage is required(Photoshop, Premiere etc). In terms of accounts we are already syncing staff and students accounts and passwords with Google and are migrating mailboxes as we speak ready to migrate to GMAIL in September. I am a self proclaimed system centre/hyper-v nut, but this whole Google eco-system is awesome and so refreshing coming from windows, the policies are clearly labelled (unlike some of the vague entries in GPO's) and the big thing for me is the speed; 10-15 seconds from turning on a ChromeBook (even the older models) to being able to use it.(with all the apps you just deployed). For those of you looking at iPad's/Chromebooks my opinion is this: iPad's (and Android based devices) are designed to be used by a single user, where you sign-in to the device and that is how you get the full experience, they suit the 1-1 model quite well but the classroom model not so much. (IMO) Chromebooks- Anyone can pick up ANY chromebook within your org and be working straight away, all their apps, files, history etc. bam -it's there, and then when you sign out 'poof' its gone. Chromebook Vs Windows laptop: On a ChromeBook, there is no need for antivirus/anti malware and so there is no device slowdown caused by this. Price: the series 3 ChromeBook can be had for around £195 (ex vat) config: On a Chromebook you add it your wifi, enroll the device and thats about it. (I don't think I need to tell you how this works on Windows) speed: A Chromebook can be on and working before a Windows machine even gets to the loading screen. lost work: If the machine crashes, the students don't lose their work. app deployment: pushing apps or your own code is pretty much 1-click 'push' and these go to chrome on the desktop too. Lastly but most importantly: Cross platform, Chrome/Google works on pretty much any device - iOS, Android, ChromeOS, Windows, Mac, Linux. For me this is more important than the hardware as it does not matter who wins the device war - the ecosystem will always be there. I'm not anti-windows; I actually quite like Windows 8 (for its hidden functions), but I do think that these days a full fat OS is a bit old hat for most things. And no, ChromeOS/GAPPS will not put you out of a job.

I found one way around this, In the GAPPS Panel if you create the wifi network under both the user and device policies then you are no longer required to tick the box and they seem to just work.