[Liverpool] Hi, new member!

[Oliver Stieber]

Sorry morning head on. Yeah plan was to create a load if 'suck it and see'
dvds or usb sticks with a basic user guide and some support possibilites,
eg data migration, hdd and ram upgrade. That's a foot through the door
approach. I've actually know a lot of people switch to gnu linux once
they've seen it running, android is common place and the 'windows' addict
is about as much as a myth as being addicted to the cd player that came
built into the car when you got it. Old hardware migration seems a very
good opitunity on that front and Vista and other Windows flavoirs can also
be targeted at the same time with the same pitch. Old hardware is okish for
low end servers but usually as the load on business hardware will be
running at full kilter the cost savings using modern high performance per
watt hardware and virtual machines etc.. usually realizes the cost benefit
break point. Plus vms mean you can pull images with consistent 'hardware'

On 3 Nov 2013 09:07, "Oliver Stieber" <oliverthered at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Ok,
> 1 the German government is doing it
> 2 I'm in the process of writing some software to do hardware checks
> 3 I've installed linux on many machines I've picked up from freecycle,
only issue I've had has been memory
> 4 hard drive and file transfer issues would be issues anyway
> Caps are the only things that will go on modern solid state devices
unless there's a damp problem fans may need cleaning or replacing.
> There may be some value in power consumption of newer equpment but I feel
there are other areas of waste when considering saving the planet
> Your seriously telling me there are major learning curve issues when it
comes to migrating to linux for your 'average' user... hmm... I must know
rather off working class families.
> Yes people make lots of money from support!
>
> On 3 Nov 2013 08:35, "Sebastian Arcus" <shop at open-t.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>> On 02/11/13 08:31, Oliver Stieber wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I'm a new member on the LUG mailing list, well I joined a few months
>>> ago, but have been tied down so not been able to attend any meetups
>>> etc... (also not the biggest fan of pubs!)
>>
>>
>> Hi Oliver and welcome to Liverpool LUG
>>
>>>
>>> Anyhow,
>>>
>>> As you all may know, Windows XP is going to be out of support sometime
>>> mid 2014, and it seems like an ideal opportunity to get Linux out to all
>>> those people with older computers that will run like a dog on later
>>> versions of windows but may well run something like ubuntu (which I
>>> suggest due to lt's versions) etc.... quite well.
>>>
>>> I'm currently in saffron Walden for the next few weeks at least and
>>> planning to do at least a few 'moist' runs of distributing ubuntu to
>>> people, along maybe with some advise on memory upgrades and also I have
>>> a load of cross-over office licenses as I worked for about 2 years on
>>> the wine/crossover project writing the DirectX 9 3D layer,
>>>
>>>
>>> It would nice to know of peoples thoughts on this idea as it seems a
>>> great opportunity of Linux adoption and really a boat that should not be
>>> missed!
>>>
>> In theory, yes - Linux would be a nice replacement for Windows XP. In
practice, as far as I've seen, things are a bit more nuanced:
>>
>> 1. Those Windows XP machines are already old by now. Windows XP was
released in 2002. Many machines are approaching 10 years of age. Unless
their owner's budget is beyond limited, most people in that situation are
more than ready for a full replacement.
>>
>> 2. Installing and supporting a new system on such old hardware is rarely
worth it in practice. To put in a number of hours into the installation,
drivers troubleshooting, user training, transferring settings and documents
- for the machine to conk out in a few months time because the motherboard
or the hard-drive has given up is not a worth while experience.
>>
>> 3. If it is done as hobby, that might be fine. But if it is done
commercially (and properly), very few people will be persuaded to pay for
the number of hours required to install, configure and train users onto a
new operating system on hardware which is completely worthless by now.
>>
>> I have installed a small number of Linux desktops for users on ancient
hardware - but it was mainly the case of people strongly committed to
recycling and/or free software - not average users.
>>
>> Strangely enough. the best experience I've had with recycling old
computers has been converting them to servers for small businesses. I've
found that if the hard-disks come out OK from hdd diagnostic software, and
the power supply is replaced (the capacitors in them age at a predictable
rate) - machines will last easily another 5-10 years as a server which is
not powered up/down regularly. Specially if it has a UPS and power surge to
protect them from large power fluctuations/spikes.
>>
>> At least that's what I've noted in my experience so far. Other's might
see things differently.
>>
>> Sebastian
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> Liverpool at mailman.lug.org.uk
>> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/liverpool
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