What is Digg?95 Comments
- schestowitz, on 11/12/2007, -3/+90This man deserves a good beer!
- inactive, on 11/12/2007, -13/+8216,000 computers not infected with Windows! SENSATIONAL!
- trying2hide, on 11/12/2007, -0/+57He is a good man! Can we donate to him? Paypal account?
- StepOne, on 10/11/2007, -1/+49That's a lot of installs. Wonder what distro he uses?
- yellowtape, on 10/11/2007, -1/+42Genius. I agree. Beer for this man immediately.
- digrboi, on 10/11/2007, -0/+31kudos to the guy for the good deed he's doin....also let's hope this thread does'nt turn into yet another linux vs windows flamewar.
- jason469, on 11/12/2007, -1/+27It brings me joy that we still have people who care enough and do it out of their good will.
What's even better is that he isn't using the Government as some type of crutch, he's collecting those computers from people who no longer have any use for them vs asking the government for money.
Well done sir. - cyclingbum, on 10/11/2007, -2/+24http://www.accrc.org/
paypal on right side of site for donations - Slacker99, on 10/11/2007, -1/+17http://www.zareason.com/shop/home.php
If its the same distro as he sells, its some flavor of 'bunto - TokenUser, on 10/11/2007, -1/+15Avoiding the whole Linux vs Windows issues (XP is a great OS ;) ) ... recycling old (for the original owner) PCs for donation to others is just good karma. Just because you machine isn't up to spec for the latest and great games or business apps, doesn't mean it isn't a perfectly servicable surfing/office suite box.
- asforme, on 10/11/2007, -1/+15I've done this a couple of times too. Definately not on the scale of this guy, but I just finished providing a 76 year old woman with a computer with ubuntu, and her church agreed to pay for her to have DSL. All she really wanted is to be able to "write to her son". The funny thing is I showed her how to search youtube for her favorite old big band jazz, and I think she's addicted to the internet now.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -1/+13he Owns.
- MISDIREK7ED, on 10/11/2007, -0/+12http://www.accrc.org/
I just bought one of his shirts from his cafepress store... :) - asforme, on 10/11/2007, -0/+12Yeah, people who can't afford computers and have very little experience with them already figured out how to download a torrent, burn a cd and bypass activation. Please. A good number of people who receive a computer with an OS pre-installed don't even know that another one can be installed.
- n8r0n, on 10/11/2007, -0/+12I wish I had the time to do something like this...
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+11OMG!!! when did you get out of the asylum??? :-0
- Sparkster185, on 10/11/2007, -1/+11You sir, are a moron.
- cawpin, on 10/11/2007, -1/+11There's a guy where I'm from in Indiana that does this as well, a very noble thing.
- snurfle, on 10/11/2007, -2/+11"free useless os"?
go play your flame trolling games on myspace with all the other children. - inactive, on 10/11/2007, -1/+10James Burgett...you are awesome!
- sigmaman2, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8FYI, you can see the building on Google Maps Street View at 1501 Eastshore Hwy, Berkeley, CA 94710, USA. It's the white triangular building.
I can't post HTML, so I'm depending on the Digg community to do it for me...
BTW, I'm planning on volunteering there soon. THANKS DIGG! - sc0tt, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8I do this too :) Probably only given around 300 machines away though, and i've been doing it for about six years.
- ldog, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8Most business apps run fine on 5 or 6 year old hardware.
Agree with it being good karma. - Langford, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7He's actually got a very nice shop there. I'll have to remember it exists.
- judesarmy, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7We need more people like this in the world. A most noble effort to help those who are less fortunate. And hey, it's good for the environment in the long run. Backed 100%.
- craftycorner, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7Actually, as Linux evolves, the reversing to pirate Windows is happening less often. Linux is becoming a very usable OS with one click software install.
- blaser, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7If linux is communism, i'm a communist :P
- snurfle, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7I feel bad, now... I've put together about 2 dozen systems in the past 2 years, all from old clunker machines / parts, and installing Mandrake / Mandriva... I've been selling them for $20.
I feel dirty after reading this! - inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7You do. There are many programs with the Goodwill foundation (you know, the guys you usually give clothes away to..not Salvation Army, the other guys) that teach and distribute computers to under priveledged. I was part of the teaching program a few months ago where we taught seniors about computers on Saturdays, then at the end of a 8 week session, if they completed the class they received a free used (donated) computer.
Though I was part of the teaching program, there were also volunteers part of the refurbishing operation as well.
Only takes 2 hours out of a Saturday morning, in some cases I was hung over but it was definitely worth it to help bridge the "digital divide".
link for the interested http://locator.goodwill.org/index.asp?EmptyKey=EmptyGWCode - DRCross, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6What a great person. Well done mate.
- jcruzlara, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6Probably Suse or Ubuntu
taken from the site
"We will teach you how to install and use Suse and/or Ubuntu GNU/Linux. " - SebHughes, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6These are the people that deserve to get notice in life for offering such a great service in life in return for nothing.
- iXneonXi, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6I do stuff like this at work. At the Capital Area Corporate Recycling Council we do a great deal of refurbishing computers and providing the underprivileged with machines.
- kmcniece, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6Portland, OR has freegeek.org. They make the recepients help build their own computers and learn how to use them in the process. It is a wonderful group.
- iBenzin, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5I volunteered there for a while. They used SuSe before moving to Ubuntu. Its fun, you get to meet a lot of geeks and the volunteer hours are worth it.
- heffae, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Check out their flickr page as well http://www.flickr.com/photos/aftermath_technology/sets/72057594116214521/ a 31 machine knoppix pc cluster powered by vegetable oil. So points for recycling, points for helping the community, and points for overall geekyness.
FWIW it from their website it looks like they use Ubuntu and SuSe for their installs (at least they mention that they will teach volunteers how to install thous distros) - aki480, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Very nice! It's always refreshing to see people who recognize that "giving is better than receiving" - another beer for sigmaman2!
Oh, and the Google Maps link below:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=1501+Eastshore+Hwy,+Berkeley,+CA+94710,+USA&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=41.496446,64.248047&ie=UTF8&ll=37.874174,-122.305783&spn=0.001266,0.001961&t=k&z=19&om=1 - D4r7h3v1l, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4You know there are more factors in the performance and cost of a computer than the aesthetics of the case, right?
- iXneonXi, on 10/11/2007, -2/+6We have a similar operation going on at the Capital Area Corporate Recycling Council in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. We're building a cluster right now, and daily activity involves refurbishing donated computers to give to the underprivileged. http://www.cacrc.com
- andrewtheart, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Troll troll go away,
Come again another day.
Underprivileged people want to play. - MeltedUFO, on 10/11/2007, -0/+395% of the developing world pirates Windows?
- zareason, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Thanks for checking out our systems. While it may appear that they are identical systems, the MediaBox has an upgraded CPU, double the HD, double the RAM, a dedicated Video Card, and includes a built-in TV Tuner with MythTV preconfigured.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Unless he has a volume license agreement with MS, giving away these machines with legal OS's would be horribly expensive. Linux has only the cost of the bandwidth to download and CD to burn it.
Besides, anyone getting one of these PC's is going to be happy just to have internet, e-mail, and office capabilities. These aren't the people who will be playing games or doing some other task which requires Windows specific software. - sigmaman2, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Apparently, there are at least 16,000 people who want an "underpowered machine without Windows." They are free machines. If they break down, and the user's not able to fix them, then maybe there's a provision to get another free one. After all...they're FREE! Can you say that about an "Over-powered machine WITH Windows?" And these "Charity Cases" are, a lot of the time, schools, which use the money saved on hardware to pay for networking. That's where the internet connection comes from. Either that, or they can get cheap broadband at home today for $10 per month.
You may not be trolling, but it seems that you're not thinking either. - zareason, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3For the desktops they give away, they use Ubuntu 6.06 LTS. They use other distros for various other things, like ParallelKnoppix for the veggy-oil powered clusters.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2We should collect all those initiatives on http://freedomdrive.org
- Chandon, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Most of an OS install is waiting, so you can pipeline them. And that's assuming he isn't just using bulk-install tactics like disk images or pre-configured net installs.
- binarysemaphore, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Cool..I am also reluctant to throw away my old hardware since it serves me well for my computing needs (which are websites, emails, banking, news, console app development). icewm + arch linux really flies on this old p3 box.
- zareason, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Yes, James rocks. When we first started volunteering there on the weekends, it felt like we were finally doing something important. Last Saturday we delivered a whole new computer lab to an inner-city public school - 30 refurbished systems (P4 1.8 GHz) all for free, running Ubuntu 6.06 LTS. A few things we love about James' approach:
1. As he says, "Well, I don't set my standards very high. That's part of it." (gotta love him)
2. Our kids adore him. His warehouse is like a geekbaby's toy store, "oh, look! a pile of wires!" Technically, they can't volunteer, but there is a definite sense of play at ACCRC.
3. His business structure is sustainable. The State of California instituted an electronic recycling fee which, as a computer company, we pay per system. We don't mind one bit. If those funds are going directly to guys like James with a structure like ACCRC, then it's all good. - haxor1990, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2M3RCINIAN you really need to get a clue!
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