Subject: Re: [luau] A Mission For Luau]
From: James Zuelow (jamesz@ideafamilies.org)
Date: Wed May 01 2002 - 10:43:22 AKDT
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jon Reynolds" <jonr@destar.net>
To: "AKLUG" <aklug@aklug.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 01, 2002 10:06 AM
Subject: [Fwd: [luau] A Mission For Luau]
> I am on an linux mailing list in Hawaii and this was brought up as an
> idea, which has generated a lot of responses. Should we be doing
> something similiar? Do we have a way, or an idea, on how to get linux
in
> more areas of our community?
We're doing some initial exploration into setting up a similar program
here in Juneau, but there are a lot of issues to be hashed out. Most of
these are no-brainers, but I'll bring them up anyway:
--Not every non-profit/church wants a 100% Linux solution, especially if
nobody at the organization is familiar with it. You need to consider
working with other operating systems (Samba and Netatalk immediately
come to mind). Therefore members of the Church of Linux who view any
proprietary OS as something to be exorcised (you know who you are) might
not be the best front men for the project. Pragmatism is the rule.
--In order to be successful, especially in the first stages, there has
to be some sort of support (formal or informal). Teaching someone how
to manage a *nix server, including resetting the network, configuring a
firewall, etc. has to be part of the package. The presence of an office
geek that already knows or wants to learn is critical. This is the weak
point for Juneau, as our membership isn't very large right now. We
would need a few people to volunteer to help and/or teach before setting
up a program. The recipients might want a telephone number they can
call in an emergency as well. NOTE: Don't promise what you can't
deliver. If you know that an Apache/SSL/PHP/MySQL setup is perfect for
a church website with online donations, but you don't have anyone who
can TEACH the setup, don't make the offer. It's not fair to set up a
semi-working system and then point them to the O'Reilly section of a
bookstore to finish up.
--Don't dump garbage on people. I would not want to take delivery of 10
older computers for "free" and then have to start replacing old CD-ROM
drives, power supplies, etc. as they start to fail. Remember that a low
cost eMachines PC with Windows is still under warranty (especially if
you get it at Costco). So machines that might be useful for a tinker's
home network (my home machines range from 5 years old to 8 years old,
and I kind of like the excitement of a hardware failure) might not be
useful for real production work in an office. Remember the non-profit
will be DEPENDING on these machines to work. Linux may run and be
stable on them, but if the hardware is dodgy that doesn't matter. An
important collary (spell?): Don't let other people dump garbage on you
"for charity" when it can't really be used. That old 286 might be a
collector's item, but will it be PRODUCTIVE in an office? Some
non-profits really do care about how much electricity is used, so don't
want a bunch of single use machines when a multi-purpose server will do.
--The expense of storing computers before they are needed, sorting out
the chaff that can't be used and disposing of it. Even if you have good
quality control on the incoming stuff, some things will just be broken
beyond repair. I don't know about Anchorage, but here in Juneau it is
expensive to put things in the landfill, and they won't incinerate a
computer. So you need to set up some sort of financial arrangement to
handle those situations (unless you have a member with a big garage who
also doesn't mind fronting the disposal money).
I could go on and on. I would guess that the Anchorage club has enough
members to handle it, once storage/disposal issues are worked out. But
it would be a lot of work.
Cross posted to the Juneau list as this issue hasn't appeared on the
list yet.
Cheers,
James
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2a23 : Wed May 01 2002 - 10:43:46 AKDT