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Comment by motoko | Hacker News Reader

Because lab computers can be configured with all the necessary software and support students need to do work in an environment conducive to doing work. It's the software, support, licensing, environment, configuration, maintenance, convenience, peripherals, bandwidth, security, environment, and unity of purpose that's most valuable... not the physical computer itself.

When every student has paper, why print books?

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I agree. Especially about the required software. University shouldn't expect me to install windows, matlab, indesign, full office, visual studio, etc. on my own box. It's also nice to have a reference machine - it's much easier to work with "project has to run on the standard uni boxes" than "it has to be compatible with X, Y, Z and compiled with V". At my university they reduce energy usage / maintenance costs by using Sun Rays - we can login to a unix, or windows server, or just get a simple mozilla-only session which loads in a second or two. Possibility to print something on the network printers (~10) at any time is also something I find useful. Amazingly, I haven't even found anything TDWTF-worthy about that setup...

Even though almost everyone has a laptop here, the library / lab (wifi available) is still full with people using the local computers to study (~200 places).

But now that you mention books... I'd be really happy to get all the books I need in pdfs, so that:

1. they're searchable / bookmarkable

2. I can print out those 2 pages I really need and not carry the whole thing around

Some sort of Citrix/Xterm setup would negate most of the installed software issues.

Most of the schools I know about have a standard cluster of Unix machines which we can SSH into - and the rule is that programming assignments have to run on those. That seems fairly standard ...

Most schools I'm familiar with also let you set up X forwarding/RDP/citrix to their fancy cluster so you can get any app you need without installing it.

Gigapedia.org

Download that book, enjoy.

experiments in physics

motoko did not quite say: "When every student has [a Kindle-style eBook], why print books?"

Yes, you are right today. Give me four years and ask your question again.

(I'm skipping the issues of DRM. I suggest we not wander down that rabbit hole. I'm just talking technical questions.)

I see what you're getting at, but in the context of computers and computer labs, again: it's the environment of a preconfigured lab that's valuable, not so much the physical medium of the computer itself.

Likewise, a library, a bookstore, and a bookshelf are specific environments that could never be replaced by e-books ---even if / when society collectively concludes that e-books are a superior and preferred medium for consuming book-like content.

Is the preconfigured lab really that valuable in today's workplace? I would think that a greater value would be in students receiving recommendations on software and configurations and then letting them discover what truly works for them.

True...so what about a remote desktop + virtualized solution, though?

Actually, that might be more expensive

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