mlong@datalong.com wrote, on Nov 23, 2008 at 11:37 EST:
Hi All,
I have floated the following idea at my church and it has been well received. Seek donations of older computers, have the youth group refurbish them, sell them at a low price with user training and support to seniors. The money raised will go to the youth group. The systems would be optimized for email and web surfing. Naturally Linux would be the OS.
Is this a crazy idea? Has anyone done something similar? Are there resources available to help with this sort of thing?
My typical response to such inquiries is to point folks to http://freegeek.org as a long standing example of recycling/refurbishing computers for those in need. I've not followed their progress in many years, but they were quite strong back in 2003, and still seem to be going rather well, with other regional FreeGeek "family members" popping up across the country. I've long wanted to see one such venture around here, but ... there's too much work involved :P -- Aaron Haviland 34 Wayne Ave, Dudley, MA