Call for salvaged hardware!

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: Matt Price <moptop99-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org>

| On Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 7:33 PM, D. Hugh Redelmeier <hugh-pmF8o41NoarQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org> wrote:

| >  I ask because I'm finally thinking of getting rid of some of
| > my heap of old machines.  Mostly PII era stuff.

Is anyone else interested in stuff of this vintage?  Or can I take it
to Environment Day to get rid of it with a clear conscience?

| 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).

Makes perfect sense.

| 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.

Ditto.

I still use SFF PII boxes as my gateways.  They have enough horsepower
and they seem to be built like tanks (touch wood).