College of Medicine Computer Requirement
Starting with the Class of 2010, all medical students will be required to own a laptop computer and bring it to class on a regular basis. Consequently the number of student computer workstations provided by the College will decrease over time. [Students in the classes of 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009 are covered by an earlier home computer requirement.]
The College of Medicine does not endorse a specific operating system or computer brand. This requirement focuses on function and open standards. The following list of capabilities are required at a minimum:
- Hardware
- Modern, network-aware operating system
- Windows 2000/XP or above, Mac OSX 10.3 or above
- 500 MHz processor (1 GHz recommended)
- WiFi Wireless network capability
- (802.11g is strongly recommended.)
- This may be built-in, or a plug-in card.
- Display resolution at least 1024x768 pixels
- Sound capable with headphone jack
- At least one USB port
- CD read/write / DVD read media drive
- (Full DVD read/write is recommended.)
- Long life battery (* see below)
- Printer (** see below)
- Modern, network-aware operating system
- Software
- Malware protection
- Current, fully-patched operating system
- Anti-viral software installed and up to date (# see below)
- Anti-spyware software installed and up to date (# see below)
- Modern, standards-compliant Web browser
- Firefox, Mozilla, Netscape, Opera, and Safari are good choices.
- (We discourage use of MS Internet Explorer. ## see below)
- The three major streaming media players/plug-ins
- Real, Quicktime, and Windows Media
- Standards-based email client
- Must be capable of accessing campus Gatorlink email.
- Some students may wish to use the campus Webmail exclusively.
- Standard "run time" environment for Java programs
- Software to read/write Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint formats
- MS Office or Open Office (free!) from openoffice.org
- Ability to read PDF files (PDF writing recommended)
- Malware protection
* Laptop batteries have a limited life span. It is very common for students to experience less than one hour battery life. This is a sign that the battery is old and should be replaced. Given the length of the school day, we strongly encourage students to replace old, failing batteries; and invest in a second spare battery. The Lithium ion (LiON) battery type is preferred.
** The College of Medicine currently provides laser printers for students in the MDLs and Shands student lounge. Choice of printer for home use is left up to each student.
# Anti-viral and anti-spyware software is essential for all Microsoft operating systems. There are no known viruses that affect Macintosh OSX systems, so the need for anti-viral software is less critical.
## Microsoft Internet Explorer is by far the most problematic of all major browsers. The current version is not Web-standards compliant, and may not render standard Web pages properly. Unfortunately, certain Web sites were "written for IE" -- a very questionable practice. We recommend that all students, faculty and staff use a standards-compliant browser such as Firefox or Safari, and hold IE in reserve for the occasional "IE only" Web site.
Location: http://medinfo.ufl.edu/oea/osa/pp_computer_requirement.shtml