Seeking Laptop Donation for a Good Cause?

Johannes asks: "I'm working in a home for mentally heavily disabled children and I'm the computertechnician here. We are in need of a old notebook (486, min 120MB HDD, min. 4 MB Ram, B/W-Screen) to keep all the information of our children. After my request to IBM, Sony, Siemens I always received the same answer: 'Our budget doesn't allow us this year to help you'. Are these companies so poor that they can't not even find a notebook with our needed specifications? Anyway, until today we weren't successful, so I would like to ask all readers from Slashdot: does someone out in the big world have notebook, which he doesn't need anymore? Our home is situated in South Africa near Pretoria and we are fully dependant on donations." The standard answer IBM, Sony and the others provided seems like a dodge to me. Does anyone out there have a laptop to donate for a good cause?

Comments

You forgot some details

[shrdlu]

You don't say what operating system you need, or what software you need to run on it. For example, do you require a specific version of Microsoft OS, are there issues with software you are using that will keep you from using a later version of that OS? Are you planning on installing a Linux of *BSD OS? Do you need a modem? Do you need network?

You also need to provide details about the charity. In the US I could look up the details to make sure that this wasn't a scam. Sorry to say that, but it's always a possibility, you know. Do you have some sort of evidence that you are a charity? Is there someone who can vouch for you?

Please reply publically. These are questions that a lot of people will be asking themselves, and it may help you to get what you need.