[wplug] Xubuntu on PCs - Why Computer Reach uses Linux

[Dave Sevick]

John,

We refurbish Macs and PCs at Computer Reach.  I am the Apple lead tech and working toward a better understanding of Linux as a newbie since working with your group first back in 2009 and 2010. At that point we were testing Debian on PPC Macs and decided as a team that it was not fully supported by the open source community ( intel is much more and we have to spend too much time in the command line to tweak it.  Many of the WPLUG people were fantastic supporters …. still are.

In 2010 Max Gelman worked with us to place Edubuntu with Gnome 2 desktop on P3 and P4 computers … our first work with PCs after 12 years refurbishing only Macs exclusively. In 2012 we refined Max’s great work with Johnny Qwalick and Edubuntu 12.04 and then 13.04.

Fast forward to 2015 and our main Linux person is Kevin Driscoll, a PC/Linux consultant.  We are proud to share our progress with  Xubuntu 14.04 LTS with XFCE and the Edubuntu package added. Very stable and flexible for our needs. We have 64x, 32x and 32lite ( depending on the age and RAM of each donated computer ) and our  images on served our PXE servers using Clonezilla. 

We do test and tinker with many flavors of Linux, including Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Cinnamon and many more.  

All of our computers serve non-profits around the world, now in 26 countries.

Thanks and I would be glad to talk with you offline on  more collaborative opportunities.

Dave


> On Jun 13, 2015, at 7:36 AM, John Lewis <oflameo2 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> On 06/13/2015 03:30 AM, Dave Sevick wrote:
>> Xubuntu on PCs
>> Why Computer Reach uses Linux
>> The Xubuntu team interviews Kevin Driscoll, PC/Linux Technical
>> Consultant at Computer Reach about their use of Xubuntu in their
>> organization, why they chose to deploy open source software and some
>> of the details about how they go about deploying Xubuntu. Kevin
>> concludes: "If you think about the tremendous variety of brands and
>> models of computers made in that time frame, it is astounding how many
>> combinations of equipment our (often non-technical) volunteers run
>> into. Yet after a quick PXE-boot, Clonezilla automated script runs on
>> those computers, it will reboot into a completely operational Linux
>> environment is amazing! Xubuntu is so resilient to be able to run,
>> without prompt for drivers, on so many different kinds of PC's!"
>> 
>> http://xubuntu.org/news/xubuntu-at-computer-reach/ <http://computerreach.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=291f653ca7df2401d672ded90&id=80bd30c1f7&e=b902906019>
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> 
> I know this suppose to be an ad post, but I am going to reply to it anyways.
> 
> According to DistroWatch
> <http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20150525#poll> XFCE and KDE are
> tied to be the preferred desktop environment right now. I use XFCE on
> all of my graphical computers, including my Raspberry Pi's after I
> rebuild the image for them. I have been XFCE for since Debian 7.
> 
> Why are you using an Canonical developed OS. If you are getting funding
> from them, great, you should still use it. If you are not getting
> funding, I think you are better off moving to Debian Jessie, to avoid
> Canonical's Not Invented Here Syndrome from screwing with your process.
> 
> Also, why do you never coordinate anything with WPLUG!?! The only time I
> hear something from you, you either wan to take one of us for keeps or
> want to sell us something. I would love to sponsor a co-event at Hack
> Pittsburgh and sponsor you. We have Internet, and lots of power
> connections, and software developers, electronic engineers, and
> sysadmins hanging out there all of the time. Hack Pittsburgh even has a
> meetup page <http://www.meetup.com/HackPittsburgh/> to advertise. I am
> trying to buy what you are selling, but I need you to close on a deal,
> please.
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> wplug mailing list
> wplug at wplug.org
> http://www.wplug.org/mailman/listinfo/wplug

--------------------------------------------
Dave  Sevick
Executive Director
Computer Reach
Humanitarian Computer Outreach
Mobile:  724-779-0099
Email:  dsevick at ComputerReach.Org
Site:  http://ComputerReach.Org
--------------------------------------------