[sf-lug] Computer Zombies

[Charlie Wheeler]

Hi,

My name is Charlie Wheeler and I work for a small group that was purchased
about three years ago by a large educational publishing company.

I'm a Linux enthusiast, and I noticed that you did some install-fests, so I
am
writing you to see if you (or SF-LUG) might be able to help me, or give me
some advice on dealing with some of the computers at our office that have
been put out to pasture.

Basically, they're just sitting there. It's true, of course, that some of
them aren't in good shape and have been canibalized. But, surprisingly (to
me at least) most of them are fine, older P4, desktops, servers, laptops
with plenty of memory (256MB-2GB). I suggested that we donate them, but
because schools are our clients, it's a conflict of interest for us to
donate these machines to schools. So, I'm looking for a 3rd party to
donate them to. Also at issue is the hard drive, or rather what's on it.

I volunteered to do a proposal. My plan is to install Ubuntu on the machines
(mostly Dells)and
find a non-school that takes donations, and recycle the ones that aren't
working. I could use some suggestions, in particular, who might be
interested in
these machines, and whether this will be an inordinate amount of work for
me.
My co-workers kind of poo-poo'd the idea and suggested we pay a company to
recycle them. It seems weird to just let these computers rot when they could
be useful to somebody.

Regards,

Charlie
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