[lug] FreeGeek -- Free computers running Linux.

[Sean Reifschneider]

I was invited out to Oregon by the Eugene Oregon LUG to give some
presentations on Linux and Python.  While out there, I heard of FreeGeek, a
program which refurbishes older PC hardware, loads it with a Linux setup
including office packages and the like, and gives them to low-income folks.
A very neat program.

I've put up my write-up on it along with pictures at:

   http://www.tummy.com/articles/FreeGeek/

Included below is the text-only version.

Sean
=====================
Free Geek
(http://www.tummy.com/articles/FreeGeek/)

I'm out in Portland, Oregon today visiting FreeGeek
(http://www.freegeek.org/).  FreeGeek has a multi-month waiting list of
people who want to get free PCs.  The goal is providing low-income people
with computers.  Along the way it also provides education and recycling.

Their server room is a great example of benefits FreeGeek can provide.  Of
course, FreeGeek's business is running on donated equipment.  More
importantly though, prominently displayed is a mud-covered monitor that was
recovered from the river.  Keeping monitors with their lead-lined shielding
out of waterways is a nobel enough goal...

For between 16 and 48 hours of time donated to the cause, you can walk away
with a PC running Linux.  The target is to provide machines capable of
getting online, doing e-mail and browsing, and various sorts of office-type
applications such as word-processing.

When your name comes up on the waiting list, you come in and donate time to
making FreeGeek run.  This includes testing components, office work,
answering the phones, etc.  After the appropriate number of hours, you then
build your PC and are given a class on how to operate it.

Not everyone donating time at FreeGeek is there to get a PC though.  Some
people do it just because they like geeking around and want to do something
for the community.  More often, apparently, it's people who would otherwise
purchase a PC, but want to learn the inner-workings of computers.

Recycling is also a very important part of their process.  It's not only
the obvious of taking PCs and giving them to others to use...  Many PCs
that come in have problems...  Dead hard drives being a common problem.  In
fact, they have quite a shortage of hard drives compared to all the other
equipment, largely because hard drives just tend to fail...

Dead equipment is at times repaired, but they don't have many folks skilled
enough to do monitor repair (for example), and it's not even worth the time
unless it's a rather choice monitor.

Hard drives are disassembled, partly to protect the data.  Largely to get
the circuit-board away from the rest of the mechanism for recycling
purposes.  Dead equipment is split up into it's components, and they're
paid for the better pieces.  Circuit boards in particular tend to have
precious metals in them.  Most of the rest of the PCs are not at all
valuable to salvage-houses, and are simply hauled away.

Monitors are on the other end of the spectrum.  They contain a number of
nasties including lead, and need to be treated as toxic waste in sufficient
quantity.  Richard, the production coordinator who was showing me around,
was predicting a real crisis with monitor disposal nationwide within the
next 10 years.

People bring in old PCs, and are asked for an optional donation at that
time.  Except for monitors -- they require a donation if you're dropping
off a monitor.

Once the PCs arrive, they are entered into the internal tracking system.
This system runs on donated PCs, running Apache, Tomcat, and a MySQL
database.  Systems are then booted with a special boot floppy which
displays the system's attributes (CPU speed, memory, etc), and nukes the
first partition on the drive (to reduce the likelihood of access to the
donating person's data).

Systems are then broken apart and the individual pieces are tested.  If
they're bad, they go to salvage and are recycled in component parts as
described above.  The good parts move on to assembly.

Completed machines are loaded via the network and configured.  The
current distribution is Mandrake 7.x.  Finally, the completed machines
are given a quality-control run-through and can be taken home.

In addition to the training once you've received the PCs, there's also the
learning opportunities presented by testing, building, and loading the
machines.  A great opportunity for learning about computers.  If you're
afraid to upgrade your PC, a program like FreeGeek would be ideal, even if
you have the means to purchase a new machine...

They've been in operation just over a year, and started giving away PCs in
January of 2001.  So far they've given out around 70 machines.  They turn
out about a machine a day.  Part of the problem is that the people coming
in have to be trained for the various tasks, and going away and coming back
to continue the process a week later involves some duplicated effort.

There's not a bunch of PCs waiting around for people to just take away
though.  The time donated goes to the operation and overhead in providing
the machines.  You come in and do data-entry or testing of components, or
what have you, so that at the end of your time there is a pool of equipment
you can pull from to build your machine.

One issue they run into is that of getting connected.  There was an ISP
here that was providing free access (charging for tech support, mailboxes,
etc).  However, they only operated a couple of months before they had to
shut down.  Unfortunate, since people who can't afford to buy PCs may not
be able to afford the ISP to use it...

I've gotta run...  I've offered to write some documentation for them.

I'm very impressed with their operation.  It seems like they've worked out
most of the bugs, and things are going fairly smoothly...  I'm very curious
how it's going to work out for them.  From what I've seen, I think it's
something that would be very beneficial to have grow.

Sean
-- 
 That weapon will replace your tongue. You will learn to speak through
 it.  And your poetry will now be written with blood. -- _Dead_Man_
Sean Reifschneider, Inimitably Superfluous <jafo at tummy.com>
tummy.com - Linux Consulting since 1995. Qmail, KRUD, Firewalls, Python