Greetings, I have been asked by Philip Hand to help get hardware contributed to DebConf in Argentina. Phil has asked that "some laptops" and "some servers" be loaned to DebConf.
If you already have things well under control, and do not need my assistance, that is also fine with me. You may stop reading now and go on with the rest of your day. If you are still reading, then I will assume that you would like to have help in getting equipment. While I am happy to approach various people in various companies to do this, I feel that it is best to have a list of what is actually needed available so companies that I approach would be able to look at it and say "Yes, I could loan them equipment like that". Having worked for a large corporation who had to manage "loaner equipment", I can *guarantee* you that this is more of a project than you might think for them, and particularly for a DebConf that is held outside of the country of "Corporate Headquarters", but I am willing to try and help out. What I suggest is a Wiki page that is public. On this page you state why you need the equipment and the fact that the equipment will either be returned with the Debian operating system installed, or wiped clean. Please list this in English, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. You then list the equipment needed along with a column that will show what equipment is not yet committed or whether the equipment has been committed, somewhat along the lines of: o Intel/AMD 32-bit server - XXX memory, XXX disk |Not Yet Committed| o Intel/AMD 64-bit server - XXX memory, XXX disk |Committed, Intel| o laptop - Intel/AMD - 2D, XXX disk space, XXX memory |not committed| o laptop - Intel/AMD - 3D, XXX disk space, XXX memory |Committed, Apple| o laptop - Via - 2D, XXX disk space, XXX memory |Committed, Apple| o laptop - Intel/AMD - 3D, XXX disk space, XXX memory |Committed, Apple| o motherboard - Intel Menlow/Atom - 3D, XXX disk space, XXX memory |Not committed| o networking gear - what type? Please be as comprehensive as you can on this, so you can get what you need. For example, do the servers need to be SMP for possible testing? Should they be able to support virtualization at some level? I also suggest that you keep it within "reason". Phil has suggested that at Edinburgh 10-15 laptops helped people with doing critical work, particularly in doing installation testing, and having some fairly powerful servers (hopefully supporting virtualization) would help also. The Wiki page will then allow people at various companies to pass on the pointer and say "Can we help"", yet keep the needs up-to-date. Point to it in a prominent place on your DebConf web pages, with a "equipment loan" star next to it. Later on, give it a place of prominence showing what equipment was loaned, and by who. If this page already exists, then please give me a URL and I can send it around to various people in various community-minded organizations to help. As I said before, if this is all under control then I apologize for the intrusion. I look forward to attending my first DebConf in Argentina. Warmest regards, maddog _______________________________________________ Debconf-team mailing list [email protected] http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
