wondered just why people will put up with an operating system so prone
to so many problems. If your car were do be so prone to problems as
Windows is you would be camped out at the dealership demanding
corrections to the issues. But for some reason Microsoft gets a pass
on this. It's not like there isn't other options.
Here is what I do to try and avoid these issues:
All of our computers are Macintosh Minis. Each runs three operating
systems, MacOS, Windows and Linux.
Linux and Windows run in virtual spaces (VMFusion) on the Macs.
No one, not students, not faculty are permitted to store personal
files on the computers, we have no shared server storage. We enforce
this with the step below. Students bring USB drives to school. No one
has school emails either and we do not run file or email servers on
the academic network. There is no connection, physical or otherwise,
between the academic network and the administrative one.
Every night the whole Windows and Linix disk images are replaced with
fresh copies. The guest files section, the only part of the filesystem
we permit student to write to, of the Mac is erased each night. So
even if there is a virus or spyware application downloaded it will
only exist for a few hours before being replaced with a master copy of
the OS. Because of this step we have never felt the need to have anti-
virus software. Every night there is in effect a new install made to
the computer. The masters of the Linux and Windows OS are kept on a
locked disk partition which is mounted when needed and then unmounted.
Every year I hear howls of protest when someone, usually a faculty
member, who put a file on one of the computers and comes in in the
morning to find it gone. This happens but once.
Greg
On Nov 18, 2007, at 9:25 AM, Manns, Brian wrote:
> We are struggling with students with Local Admin rights who are
> constantly getting viruses/malware. I struggle with it mainly as I
> know
> the potential if they get infected with the right virus/malware we
> will
> or could lose sensitive data. We also struggle with it as our
> Antivirus
> product "Norman" does not delete a lot of viruses. Does anyone have
> any
> recommendations on how to control this issue? Some are recommending we
> split the administrative from the academic in terms of Network. All
> suggestions are greatly appreciated.
>
>
>
>
>
> Brian Manns
>
> Network Admin
>
> Culver Academies
>
>
> [ For info on ISED-L see http://www.gds.org/ISED-L ]
> Submissions to ISED-L are released under a creative commons,
> attribution, non-commercial, share-alike license.
[ For info on ISED-L see http://www.gds.org/ISED-L ]
Submissions to ISED-L are released under a creative commons, attribution, non-commercial, share-alike license.
