On Mon, Sep 22, 2008 at 2:40 PM, Rich Schinnell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> It also makes it much easier to hire IT support people as the ratio is > probably 1000:1 of PC-MAC in the local hiring market. Check out Craig's > list or the classified. Also many NP's just throw away machines as they > crap out beyond repair. > > Many non-profits depend on second hand donations for a lot of their office > equipment and computers. > I have not worked with non-profits for the handicapped, but I have worked with other non-profits - about half of them supporting education in one way or another. Second hand donations of computers is not an issue. Clearly those computers will perform better, with fewer support calls, etc. if they are set up with Linux. And then you don't have to worry about whether software licenses were donated with the computers or not. Tech support is a reasonable issue. Especially when you can't afford to hire expensive people, or maybe anyone at all, making do with whatever your staff knows, plus their friends or family who are tech-savvy enough. Plenty of times after I stopped working with a non-profit, they switched back to Windows for tech support reasons. Sure, they had more problems, but they could find someone to help. Sometimes the volunteer tech support messed everything up and they had to start from scratch again. The more people who are educated on FOSS (Free Open Source Software), the better everyone will be, including small businesses and non-profits. I think of these situations as having a rusty, leaky pipe that brings water into your building. You have someone who knows how to wrap more duct tape around bad leaks, and you live with the small leaks. Sure, it would be great to replace the pipe with PVC or something, and it would be cheaper in the long run, but when you can't find the capital to invest in the first place, what can you do? -- John DeCarlo, My Views Are My Own ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************
