If the idea is shared laptops, probably a single laptop configuration would suffice for the following reasons: -- it's likely that most adults are barely competent to configure an operating systems -- "administrators" need to be able to maintain the revolving door laptops with minimal, consistent effort -- hard disks tend to be of sufficient size to host multiple operating systems -- someone grabbed the Ubuntu laptop but she/he needed the Windows laptop for________________ (fill in) -- someone needed the Ubuntu laptop but it was unfortunately already checked out -- individual's need to control their own data -- more efficient would be a single laptop to update perhaps by dropping a new image of a virtual configuration set -- a smaller pool of laptops would be required per "team" of shared users since all laptops would have a shared configuration
No matter what, some end-user training would be required to explain how to use whatever laptop the adult was checking out ... therefore, with a SINGLE laptop, a SINGLE instruction booklet would require one extra section explaining how to boot into one's required environment. Shared data (e.g. a slide presentation) could reside in a common folder on each "team" laptop. USB flash drives are relatively inexpensive, hence individuals would keep their unique files on their own USB flash drive. g. _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list Edu-sig@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig