UF-Statistics UFL

PC Policy



PCs in the Department of Statistics

note: In all that follows the use the term "PC" is to mean a Pentium powered Intel based PC desktop computer. 

Index: 


Statistics is a demanding computational discipline. Our departmental computing environment has always strived to address that demand. The core of our computing environment has long been the Unix workstation. Unix workstations (DECs then Suns) have provided our users with a cooperative department level computing platform that facilitates the sharing of system resources (CPUs, memory, diskspace, printers, etc) among our users. 

Introducing PCs into that environment has always been discouraged and for many good reasons. PCs, "personal" computers, have always been too "personal" to coexist well with our workstations. PCs generally don't scale well because they need to be maintained separately. Software is purchased and installed on PCs individually and in a PC environment you quickly wind up with some PCs having applications that others do not and differences in software versions between systems. That makes for a dysfunctional computing environment that is a nightmare to maintain. 

The role of Unix workstations has been, and will continue to be, central to the computational needs of the majority of our users. We do recognize though, that there are some circumstances that do justify the use of PCs within the department. 

For example: 

  1. Departmental staff could benefit from the use of common PC based office applications for administrative type tasks that are not readily available for Unix. 
  2. Specialty applications such as OCR scanning is better done on a PC then Unix. 
  3. Remote workstations used in collaborative projects with outside departments are in some cases easier to maintain as PCs then Unix workstations. We've found that operating UNIX workstations across multiple subnets has not worked well. Remote PCs will need less resources of our system than remote Unix workstations. 

We also recognize that the PC computing platform has matured in the past few years and that advances in both hardware and software now allow the PC to better coexist within our computing environment. 

In order for PCs to interact productively with our current system, we have developed guidelines for hardware and software requirements as well as management responsibilities for those PCs outside our domain. 




Relation to PCs within the Department  

PCs in the department will be treated like all other workstations. In the case of Biostat PCs, they will be charged an appropriate rate for management and replacement. 

PCs attract software. Especially illegal software. We must make sure that all software on Department PCs is licensed and that proof of purchase records are maintained. We must reserve the right to remove software from our PCs if its ownership by the Department can not be certified. We can not ask system management staff to fix, install, consult on or maintain software the system staff did not recommend or install. The minimum software below should be sufficient for PCs to be used productively and to gain access to UNIX for additional tools. 


Relation to Collaborative PCs outside the Department  

Our potential partners may not realize the demands we can put on machines in terms of graphical requirements, computational requirements, and storage requirements. Because of that, we must insist on the minimum hardware and software configurations shown below. 

Collaborative PCs outside of the Department are managed by the partnering department. All hardware repair and replacement is the responsibility of the partner. Our department assumes responsibility for the minimum software listed below. 

Data residing on the PC is the responsibility of the partner. We do not backup PCs. Data residing on our UNIX file systems will be backed up and is our responsibility. We must charge PCs a management fee per year. Collaborative PCs should be charged a $200 software installation fee based on 4 hours of work at $50/hour. Other software on the PC is the responsibility of the partner. In particular, we take no responsibility for the presence of illegal software on partner PCs. 

Collaborative PCs may reside on local area networks in their respective departments, thereby receiving file and print and other services from local servers as long as that operations does not interfere with the operation of the minimum software. 


Minimum Hardware Requirements for New PCs 

A DELL PC with the above components can be purchased today (03May2002) for under $1600. 

We've currently standardized on the DELL Optiplex line of PC desktops with their 170xFP monitors.


Minimum PC software requirements 



Vendor Notes and Pricing Info 

Hardware