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Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
An Anonymous Coward writes "Out in Oakland, CA a group is taking donated PC's and breathing new life into them with Linux. They turn around and donate the computers to schools, build POVRAY render farms (with MOSIX) and generally promote Linux."
There site navigation is totally borked so here are all the links on the site I could find:
Home
About
Donations
Internships
Press
as does my inability to close italics properly :)
"We recently turned down donations of an aircraft carrier and a 727", says executive director James Burgett. "But we are ready to handle a 727 the next time one is offered."
C'mon, guys...we were this close to having the Linux Air Force!
"Roger, Blue Leader, this is Blue 6...I'm taking another pass at Redmond." "Stay on target, Blue 6, stay on target..."
Carousel is a lie!
before I had to go back to italy to serve the army. It was an excellent opportunity to learn, I was taking care with other people of the beowulf cluster - and the rendering speed was impressing, around 12 seconds to render the 'famous' pvm x-vase when the cluster was around 60 nodes.
:)
the interesting part was that there were little optimization on the network and on the linux - it was a standard redhat 6.2 kernel, and the computers were just put on a shelf, connected, booted with a floppy that got the image from the network and self-installed the machine, rebooted, and you had a node ready for rendering.
on the other hand, the people working there were the most easy-going and honest I've seen so far - there were no hypocricy going on, and basically there was a place for anyone in it - still without too much trouble.
just wanted to share that with you guys, in case you wondered if such a non profit company was really working - it is. definitively.
anyone wanting to start something like that in norther italy?
cheers
-- There are two kind of sysadmins: Paranoids and Losers. (adapted from D. Bach)
As a former educator who worked in a "resource-challenged" school district, I applaud these types of programs. Unfortunately, often schools like the one I worked in would get money thrown at us for certain tech projects, but since there was often no follow-through or training, the money was pretty much wasted, or used for other purposes deemed more important by the school administrators.
It seems this organization not only refurbishes the computer, but also trains people to do it as well. If Linux is ever to get a foothold in schools, it will take a lot more effort than just donating X number of computers with Linux preinstalled. The community will have to invest time in making sure those computers are filling the need and that people on site are trained and commmitted to maintaining them.
Linux and public schools seem like a match made in heaven. Even though Microsoft gives a lot of lipservice (and money, you do have to give them some credit) to supporting schools, it still doesn't make sense to spend that kind of money on Windows licenses. One could make the argument that exposing students to an alternative like Linux will improve their technology skills (they're still gonna get the Windows exposure, no matter what's used in the schools).
Just my 2cents.
In a word, bullshit.
If I take a computer I own, format the hard drive with an electromagnet, and donate it to a public school with a free copy of a Linux distro, what the screaming Hell(tm) does it matter that it once had Windows on it?
1) I am not giving them Windows. I am giving them the hardware.
2) I am not encouraging them to steal a copy of Windows in any way, shape or form.
3) Microsoft does not own the computer. They never did. It was my computer, therefore it's entirely my choice what to do with it.
Kierthos
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.