On Sunday October 14, 2007 between 11AM and 7PM, PLUG members will assemble at 445 Elgin to fix up old computers that were donated to the user group.
Way back in April 2005 the University of Winnipeg donated 40-50 old computers to PLUG. Many have since found homes, but many still remain in storage.
These computers are *not* obsolete. They're from 1998-2000 and mostly have Pentium II and III processors, which today are still quite capable.
I know this, because I use one for work everyday. (Thanks PLUG!)
If you upgrade these computers to >=256M of RAM and give them a decently fast and large hard drive (>=3GB) they can run a modern, bloated, and featureful distro like Ubuntu quite well.
Originally they were to be moved from the U of W to PLUG member Syd's residence. A year ago they were moved from there to the residence of PLUG members David, Jason and myself. Soon, Jason, David, and I will be moving again and taking them with us, and we would really like it if we could move less of them this time. So, we are declaring that there must be a surge to get them fixed, get them liberated (with free software!) and get them out the door!
We've declared that the surge day shall be Sunday October 14, 2007. The office in our home at 445 Elgin Ave will be open for this between 11AM and 7PM. Please let me know by email (mark@parit.ca) when you are coming, or post to the Sparkplug mailing list. Posting to Sparkplug will help you arrive when your friends are also there if being chatty is your thing. Nobody (but me) is expected to be there the entire day, even in an hour you could contribute a lot.
PLUG members will be welcome to walk away with working computers provided that
Any working machines that are not hauled away by PLUG members will be given away via the Winnipeg Freecycle Network, the USENET group winnipeg.forsale.computers, and any other places that you recommend.
There are some computer parts that we could use to help make it easier to get the computers working or easier to give away: