Awesome! Perhaps La Commune would be interested in hosting a few for general usage in the entrance cafe/bookstore? On Thu, Jul 17, 2014 at 10:09 AM, Ed Biow <biow(a)riseup.net> wrote: _______________________________________________ sudo-discuss mailing list sudo-discuss(a)lists.sudoroom.org https://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss

So I had a chance to muck with one of the new OptiPlex 755 machines that I brought home to tinker with, it has a Intel Core2 Duo E6850 @ 3.00GHz processor, which is quite nice, 3rd quarter 2007, and quite powerful. http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core2+Duo+E6850+%40+3.00GHz http://ark.intel.com/products/30785/Intel-Core2-Duo-Processor-E6850-4M-Cach… Energy usage is reasonable, about Max TDP: 65 W, maybe 11 W more then a current generation Haswell i3-4130 desktop CPU. The machine is quiet and has one low riser PCI slot. a metric buttload of USB ports (6 back, 2 front), a DVD-RW, serial ports & most unusually, it looks like 2 RCA sound-out jacks. No PS/2, though. It seems to sport a 270 GB SATA drive. Plenty, plenty. I ran it through a short smartctl hard drive test and it passed and has about 40k hours on it, a fair amount. The box I grabbed only has 2x1 GB DDR2 sticks, but has 2 free slots. I gathered from Brian that some of the boxes have 4 GB. Because of the marginal amount of RAM I decided to install an i386 version of Kubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr, and the thing performs well. I may throw on XFCE4 for those who want a lighter environment, but I'll try to rein in my OCD and not install too many additional desktop environments. If folks feel like they prefer Cinnamon, Mate, LXDE, Gnome3, openbox, Unity, etc. they can all be installed on individual boxes later, but I feel like KDE is a good choice for these robust boxes, being very configurable and familiar to people coming from a Windows background. BTW, the 14.04 version of LXDE is much improved, particularly the file manager, pcmanfm. RAM & 32 bit vs. 64 bit: http://askubuntu.com/questions/7034/what-are-the-differences-between-32-bit… Unfortunately an old friend and his spawn and mate are visiting from Guanajuato, MX, so I won't be able to do much else on the project until mid-week. On 07/17/2014 04:50 AM, Matthew Senate wrote: Awesome! Perhaps La Commune would be interested in hosting a few for general usage in the entrance cafe/bookstore? That would be great. On 07/17/2014 05:24 PM, Marina Kukso wrote: email me offlist with some more info about what's needed to get these set up. library/classroom spaces downstairs slated for a particular collective right now or are they available? (also, is there a map that shows what collective is in what space?) On 07/17/2014 05:24 PM, Vicky Knox wrote: always been my dream that Sudo Room provide public computer terminals for folks without access to the hardware, for classes such as basic computer literacy, and for events that require computers such as Oakland Wiki editathons. You guys are far too nice, cut it out, really. Once I get a nice image ready I'll bring it to the room and if folks are interested I can show them how to install the pre-configured image and test the hard drives and memory. I wrote a little script that is helpful, it renames the host in 4 places, etc. If folks want to install Linux on their own I put a binder with a bunch of recent Debian & Ubuntu (and PCLinuxOS) DVDs on the top shelf where all the computer parts lurk. It says Micro$oft Developers Tools or something. Just please, please, please don't disassemble the boxes and take or lose the panels and hardware like some helpful individual did at the old sudoroom. I'm hoping if this bloke re-emerges that folks will chase him off, he made working on those donated machines a pile more frustrating. But another thing that people could do if they feel the call is run the machines' little self-diagnostic routine. Hook a box up to a VGA monitor and USB keyboard & Hit F12 as the system is booting up and use the down arrow key to choose DIAGNOSTICS. After you run the routine it will ask you if you want to test the memory more thoroughly, which is probably a good idea. Then label the machine as checked with a piece of paper or tape and note any problems. Extra points if you write down whether the box has 2 GB or 4 GB of RAM. On 07/17/2014 06:38 PM, Max B wrote: community bike shops have people volunteer for a number of hours and then build a bike which they're able to keep. Public terminals would be really great and I think it would also be amazing to be able to send folks home with their own machines (and maybe some basic computer knowledge) Max, OTX West already does that. It takes 20 hours of "Service Bucks" to buy a computer. Seems like they charge extra SBs to add peripherals and to "upgrade" to a faster machine with Windows 7. http://www.otxwest.org/volunteers.html I've been meaning to go over there and volunteer a bit. I can "earn" a mouse an hour, since I'm a little more experienced then their typical volunteer maybe I can con them into throwing in an extra power cable as well. Also, I'd like to talk to them about the benefits of open sores, particularly for older machines that can't handle Windohs 7, especially now that XP is no longer supported by MS. Anyway, I think that a labor-for-hardware program would be a great idea for us, too, though I would hate to have to administer it. All PowerBooks to the People, Big Red Ed On Thu, Jul 17, 2014 at 10:09 AM, Ed Biow <biow(a)riseup.net> wrote: