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Mike, I think there could be a market for this. I'm not sure if the BLU can make it a project at this time. I think old 486 systems could be employed as firewalls on home networks where 10Mbps is still faster than the cable modem or DSL connection. Michael Bilow wrote: > I am trying to liquidate computers from a private school which is having > to close after 150 years. While the computers are considerably newer than > that, the bulk of them have 486 CPUs, usually 66MHz although some are a > bit faster or a bit slower, 8MB RAM, and usually IDE hard drives of a few > hundred megabytes capacity. Nearly all of the computers have Ethernet > cards, either 10Base-T/AUI or 10Base-T/10Base-2/AUI. > > There are about 40 machines which we could boot and test, about 10 more > machines with problems which are probably fixable but not as part of our > testing procedure, plus about 10 or so machines which were not tested for > other reasons, such as finding that they had 386 instead of 486 CPUs or > that they had what sounds like loose parts or screws floating in the case. > > These machines, mainly because of the RAM limitation, are not really > suitable for running Windows 95/98/ME, so they cannot be realistically > sold to the general public. To be frank, we are looking at scrap value. > Expanding the memory probably is not an option, as many of these machines > probably have 8MB because they use 30-pin SIMM and all eight slots are > filled with 1MBx9 SIMMs. > > We have been thinking that these machines might make quite nice Linux > desktops, however. A lot of people seem to want to try Linux, but they > either are afraid to install it or afraid to mess up their main computer. > These boxes, which were deliberately set up to be fairly straightforward > networked workstations in the first place, might make ideal second > computers for such people, especialy if -- and this is the key part of the > idea -- these machines were to be sold with Linux preinstalled. After > all, people commonly go to the store and buy a shrink-wrapped box of > Linux for $30-80, so why not throw in a computer for the same price? It > would be a kind of "Super-Installfest." > > A number of goals could be achieved: the school could get a little money > to pay off some of its final debts, many people would be exposed to Linux > in a fairly easy and friendly way, and the school would be able to vacate > its premises as required by the end of this month. > > There are some downsides. These computers come with no monitors. (The > school does have monitors, but they are being paired with the better > computers first.) There are few if any mice, although there are probably > close to a sufficient number of keyboards. The computers are not heavy, > but it would probably be uneconomical to ship them anywhere, at least in > single lot quantities. There are no CD-ROM drives. > > Offsetting these downsides is the probability that the computers could go > very, very cheaply. I would be happy to get $50 each for machines like > this, with Linux preinstalled and configured. > > What do people think about this? Are these machine worth anything? > Would people pay enough to make it worthwhile to invest the time to > install Linux on them? Does the BLU have any interest in making a project > out of these machines? Or are 486 computers really just scrap now? > > -- Mike > > > - > Subcription/unsubscription/info requests: send e-mail with > "subscribe", "unsubscribe", or "info" on the first line of the > message body to discuss-request at blu.org (Subject line is ignored). > -- Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org> Boston Linux and Unix user group http://www.blu.org - Subcription/unsubscription/info requests: send e-mail with "subscribe", "unsubscribe", or "info" on the first line of the message body to discuss-request at blu.org (Subject line is ignored).
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