[ale] Just a thought and a question for everyone...

[Brian Pitts]

Ned Williams wrote:
> Evening Ale'ers...
> I just had a thought after seeing a local news reference to walmart's
> 200 dollar PC...aka the Linux machine that slashdot and everyone else
> covered last week. So I wondered..could a group like Ale either (a)
> find and recyle with a ale built linux image or (b) source parts and
> design a ale built linux image for LESS than 200...Now this might be
> pie in the sky and all, but since a group like ALE could do something
> like this for no profit one has to wonder could the lack of profit
> along with donated time equate to a PC producable and sellable for
> whoever for less than 199?  Recycling would require developing a
> minimum hardware requirement and parts sourcing might require finding
> system requirement generic enough to survive unreliable vendors such
> that if a particular part becomes unavailble or turns out to be a bad
> part it can easily be replaced without effecting kernel and general OS
> build performance and  feature list.
> 
> If it could be done it would only be have to done once enough to
> publish (and or advertise) such a thing to local non profits or other
> such suitable targets..If they wanted to aquire such a puter they
> could be built per unit/order to prevent or at least mitigae any risk
> etc etc?
> 
> 
> 
> just a thought for anyone to ponder..Think it could be done? realistically?
> 
> Ned

Hi Ned,

Your recycling idea is one championed by Free Geek [1] and many similar 
organizations. There is one here in Georgia called Free IT Athens [2]. 
In addition to offering low cost computers [3], we maintain a  public 
computer lab with internet access and offer training and technical 
support for linux and other free software.

Any ALE member who'd like to volunteer with us or just donate some 
hardware should send an email to freeitathens at gmail.com

Of course, there's a huge need in Atlanta that we don't have the 
manpower or logistics to meet. It would be wonderful if a group of 
Atlanta techies could organize and try to address that. However, if you 
view the exercise solely as linux evangelism with low cost computers I 
don't think you'll go far. [4]

All the best,
Brian Pitts
Free IT Athens Staff

[1] http://freegeek.org/
[2] http://freeitathens.org
[3] for example, $25 for a PIII 500mhz, 256MB RAM, 10GB hdd, CRT 
monitor, keyboard and mouse with Edubuntu installed
[4] Anyone who is primarily motivated by the idea of offering low cost 
computers and doesn't mind a linux-unfriendly environment should 
contact http://www.techcorpsga.org/