I've done a bit of this - I've demo'd an Ubuntu LTSP and also laptops at
voluntary sector events - people don't 'get' what an operating system is
and tend to think that MS Win is 'part of the machine'. They have to
have a reason for considering changing OS and I find that being able to
help the environment and save money at the same time is a powerful
incentive to consider something new.
Paula
On 19/07/10 13:42, Rob Beard wrote:
On 19/07/10 13:21, pmgazz wrote:
Environmental events are good, foreground stuff like how to refurbish
their XP kit and keep perfectly good electronic kit out of landfill . . .
Paula
I agree, someone in our local LUG donated a couple of old PCs (I think
they were around early Pentium 2's) to a local nursery, one was running
Windows and another was running some Linux distro, turns out the kids
preferred the Linux PC and I believe Windows was replaced with Linux too.
Also in our local LUG we've installed an LTSP server and 6 client
machines (old Dell P3's which were donated by a local business) at a
local community centre. The server (albeit a rather beefy, if not too
beefy) is running as an LTSP server running Ubuntu 8.04 and the clients
netboot. It was great to see the machines actually being used at an
open day, I believe they're really benefiting the community as some
folks in the area can't afford internet access or don't have a computer
at home and they can pop down to the community centre and get access to
the internet and learn computer skills, and the kids (especially the
older teens) like to go down in the evenings and browse the Internet
giving them something to do in a safe secure environment.
I'm hoping as a LUG in Devon we can start to do more of this in the
future, I'd even refurbish machines and stick Ubuntu on them if it
wasn't for another guy on our local Freecycle list who gets old
machines, refurbishes them and sticks Windows XP and Office 2003 on them
(I think he's either got a whole load of Office 2003 licenses he wants
to give away or he's installing pirate copies of the software, however
good his intentions are I'm sure one day he'll come unstuck).
Rob
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