On Wed, Oct 27, 2004 at 03:00:57PM +0100, Ted Harding wrote:

On 27-Oct-04 Jonathan McDowell wrote:

...

Another meeting suggestion:

How about a kit swap meet? Everyone brings their old junk they want to get rid of for free and we bring some install CDs too perhaps and either we just swap junk or we combine it up to build full machines that we can then give to charity or people can take away?

A propos: What's a good way to give old kit away to charity?

I figure that there are plenty of kids at school, college who want to play with Linux but don't have a spare computer to install/dual boot on etc. and can't afford to find 50 quid to buy a secondhand machine.

I intend to give away a couple of old machines via Alug to the best "sob story" I get within a week of when I post the offer to the list, if it turns out that nobody with a "need" for them then I will give them away to whoever for a few beers or whatever.

Of course when I give them away they will have a nice new shiny configuration of Debian or similar setup for them.

Of course, we could setup a "Free Linux Computer" campaign for people and do this to provide new users with old machines running Linux so they can play around with them.

Adam

Ian writes:

adam@thebowery.co.uk wrote:

...

Of course, we could setup a "Free Linux Computer" campaign [...]

Now that is what I call a good idea.

This is something we've discussed in Peterborough (PLUG), and I agree its a good idea. We're at the early stages so far (ie we haven't really done anything other than talk about it, but it only came up in discussion a month ago) but I'd be keen to see which way ALUG go with it and see if we can share experiences.

My feeling is that we should try to source second hand hardware of a pre-defined minimal spec, turn it into a "standard" config which we (PLUG in our case) would decide on, based on personal preferences, ease of use for new users, etc, then either return it to the donator (ideally they'd be at the meeting for the install anyway) or give them to worthy causes (or, perhaps, sell them at nominal cost in aid of worthy causes).

The key here is to decide what is a minimum spec. I personally have spare kit of 386/486/P75 level which it seems a shame to throw out, but that's below what I'd even suggest for a firewall. Taking donations of old kit which isn't realisticallly going to be useful just means our meeting venue (my office) will get filled with a PC junk archive. And, of-course, this should promote Linux; if you give someone a Linux box based on slow kit, and they compare it against their friends fast XP machine, it could (unfairly) do a lot of damage to the image of Linux, rather than support it.

Discussions on PLUG's list didn't really reach a conclusion of what a minimum spec should be, but ALUG's list is more active so maybe a concensus here would be more likely?

Incidentally, we (my company) have done some work for a local government funded environment/recycling organisation. I would like to have a proposal to put to them regarding recycling "old" hardware and se whether they'd support it, but I kind of need more flesh on the proposal than I have at the moment. Although Peterborough based, their schemes cover much of East Anglia. See www.bems.co.uk for more info. Suggestions for how to tackle them welcomed!

On Thursday 04 November 2004 7:37 pm, adam@thebowery.co.uk wrote:

I think as you said storage is going to be a bit of a problem, I'm sorry but there is no way I can help out. I have to move house in the next few months and I am trying to get rid of kit, not acquire more :)

I may be able to help on the storage front, unfortunately I am in Bury St Edmunds which does not seem that central to the ALUG's population of more active members.

I have a small amount of office space (about 200 Sq Ft) That I currently sublet. That tenant is moving out this month and in all honesty the space is too small and windowless to make it worth going through the hassle of letting it again.

ALUG are welcome to use this space for storage as long as it is understood that I may be forced to withdraw use of the space with short notice in the future (if we need it for something that generates revenue)