Call for salvaged hardware!

[Matt Price]

On Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 7:33 PM, D. Hugh Redelmeier <hugh-pmF8o41NoarQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> | From: Matt Price <matt.price-H217xnMUJC0sA/PxXw9srA at public.gmane.org>
> | Date: Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:52:50 -0500
> |
> | some of you may remember that years ago I taught a linux-focussed "build
> | your own computer" course using salvaged hardware. I'm reviving this
> | course in the new year at a downtown elementary school, and am looking
> | for parts for 15 or 16 systems that school kids will build up, install
> | ubuntu on, and learn to use.  If it's successful, I'm hoping to expand
> | the program out into a bunch of neighbourhood schools, and maybe get a
> | kind of computer club going where kids learn a little bit of programming
> | and systems administrations.
> |
> | Anyway, that said:  i thought I had a line on a substantial supply, but
> | my source has fallen through.  So I'm putting out a general plea for
> | hardware -- boxes, parts, monitors, keyboards, mice, etc...  Meanwhile
> | I'll keep plying my other connections as well.
>
> How did this go?
>
> Did it turn out to be a way to "consume" old computers?
>
> How old?  I ask because I'm finally thinking of getting rid of some of
> my heap of old machines.  Mostly PII era stuff.
> --

i'd say more that it turned out to be a way to consume *used*
computers, most of which were not actually very old.  PII's are not so
great for beginners to use!  because it's hard to run the big shiny
new distros on them -- and the mroe customization you have to do
before yo start, the more there is for folks to learn.  We used mostly
fast P3's and some P4's (a couple with processors in the 2-3GHz
range).

It would be nice to know what to do with genuinely old computers.
There's also an environmental question -- when you can buy an embedded
system with the same processing power, it's not obvious that running
big fat p2 desktops is really a green alternative.  i would very much
like to hear others' ideas on this subject.

matt
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