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Microsoft Authorized Refurbishers
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft has announced a program to 'establish a vibrant community of computer refurbishers across 133 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa who will be authorized to re-install its Windows operating system in donated pre-used PCs destined for schools, charities, non-profit organizations and under-served communities...Microsoft will provide re-installation of Windows 98 Second Edition and Windows 2000 Professional in over 18 languages. The refurbished PCs will be accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity (COA) and a special End User Licence as evidence of a legally installed operating system.' XBruticusX submits a story on news.com about the program.
Since the license is non transferable (a rule I thinks needs legal review, but that's how it stands) this is an unfortunate necessity. I have worked with Microsoft in the past, and it was difficult to get a relicense approved, even for non profits. Instead they wanted to sell new licenses at a discounted rate, but still at a cost that makes the "donated" hardware a liability rather than an asset.
Sig under construction since 1998.
The Microsoft Authorised Refurbishers (MAR) Programme FAQ addresses this issue:
As for the "adminstrative fee," the FAQ explains:
To answer other questions, people may want to check out:
Microsoft Authorised Refurbishers Programme.
Only Women Bleed (Sex, Sharia remix)
"It is a shame that the refurbished computers can't be loaded with low cost Lindows"
I'll tell you why they can't as until recently I worked at a nonprofit MAR member. People who run the local community center / church / shelter / adult day care / whatever nonprofit have NO IDEA about computers other than they've heard that Microsoft Windows is what they're supposed to have. At $5 per MAR license or $0 for [insert distro here] Linux, they'd rather pay. There is no amount of patient explaination that will change their minds, I assure you as one who has tried. They also want to pay for MS Office rather than OpenOffice for the same reason. Never heard of it? Don't want it and don't want to know! And all of my persuasions were based on cost and performance on older computers, not a fanatical open source agenda.
Actually... Even Windows 3.11 had tiny bits of 32-bit code in... (Im talking Wfw3.11 here..)
It had 32-bit disk access, 32-bit TCP stack, and a few other things. Of course with the Win32s (remember those?) it had a whole lot of 32-bit code.
Not that I am nitpicking here...
As one of our volunteers is doing, developing Tetun versions for East Timor....such developments are actually MUCH more likely in Linux. Computerbank Victoria is shipping Farsi boxes....I would suggest to you there would be more possibility of FOSS than commercial software for such limited 'customer base'....
Nothing - well thats something.
Microsoft is really unclear on this;
If you have an OEM install of Windows, it MUST be sold with the machine. You can't sell the bare machine and reinstall WIndows on your new computer.
If you buy a second-hand machine, apparently you don't ever get Windows with it and are supposed to buy a new version.
It looks to me like someone is trying to sell at least one new windows licence every time a second-hand machine gets sold or donated.
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and getting after market RAM sticks is extremely cost prohibitive, and a lot of these older machines take very precise sticks
:)
:) (see below)
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God, Zogger... wish I'd known. I just sold a 8 lb box of 486/PI/II ram - a lot from prop machines like IBMs and gateways - on ebay. If I'd known you were looking I'd have just shipped it to you (didn't get enough money to pay for my time, only about fifty bucks)
Hey, man, don't feel bad. Before I moved I had tons of old equipment around, and that's how I learned to do stuff. Think of it as an education - in frustration - which is often the best teacher *grin* but seriously, sometimes just doing install after install on various machines is the best way to learn it. I'm biased - that's how I did it - but hey
That said, for a lot of older systems, you might try Damn Small Linux - which I use on my 486 laptop and which works quite well. It's a massively shrunken (50 mb image) version of Knoppix which is geared for min memory and cpu - and still has the hardware autodetect. Works pretty well (just doesn't update well, it's a mix of Debian stable, unstable and testing - so one has to be careful
You don't need a CDrom, either - if you can get the 50mb image on the hard drive, even if it's in a DOS partition, you can boot it from a DSL boot floppy, or with tomsrblt you can boot it over NFS if the network card is supported (takes a little tweaking tho in some configs)
DSL boots with fluxbox and a fb X and even on my 486 33mhz laptop is quite usable (I use the 486 to monitor the big machines from bed and surf slashdot occasionally
DSL is also quite nice for doing chroot to a debian install without having to go thru the crap of loading floppies - read the howtos there (too long to get into in this post)
BTW, none of the machines I've used DSL on have more than 16mb ram - more helps, but it's very usable without them, as long as you aren't using modern browsers (ram-hungry) or things like Open Office. To boot DSL requires only 8 mb ram if you're willing to deal with a lot of HD swap. Installation is easy - there's a script in the image that is really easy to run thru, all you need to know is what partition it needs to be on. Oh, and it pretty much installs and runs itself. Give it a try. I'd be interested in hearing your experiences (no, I'm not affiliated, I just think that Damn Small Linux rocks!)
Hey, good luck, man - seriously. Don't have time to play like that anymore, and I kind of miss it. If you'd like some non-RTFM help, post back - and we'll figure out a contact. I can't promise FT replies but I'll damn sure help you out - I'd consider it payback for those who helped me learning this.
Cheers!
SB
It's old. The more humans I meet, the more I like my cats. At least they are honest.
Has it ever occured to you NOT to tell them it's not Windows? That's what I did with a friend of my mother's. I set everthing up so it was easy.. the Icon for Open Office said "Start Word Processor".....Replaced the Mozilla Icon with Netscape Icon....ect..
She's been using it for months...with no complaint. If they are igonrant enough to not know about LINUX...they are igorant enough not to understand why they need to run Windows....or even what windows IS! She wanted to add a digital camera to the system....It works without a hitch (MEPIS works great as a newbie distro!!)