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
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.
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