[Foss4g2008loc] PC's for FOSS4G

[Gavin Fleming]

To fill you in - this thread jumped from the core LOC list as a budget
discussion to this broader list, so there wasn't much of a thread to
follow.

 

We have PC hire lined up for the workshops but in the past 10 days have
been considering options to buy PCs rather than hire. Buying does cost
more but then our (your) money doesn't go into a bottomless pit - GISSA
and OSGeo get to have a say in how 100 PCs get used for GIS in education
after FOSS4G. 

 

We have a supplier who's giving us substantially less than wholesale
prices on a fairly high-end PC (incl screen) for around R4500, including
loading the image we require for the workshops. 

 

Zoltan we haven't gone down your route but for education your config
triples the impact we could make. If you want to put a hardware quote
together pls do so asap if you think we could use them first with XP.

 

XP has to be loaded for the FOSS4G workshops as some workshops require
Windows. Linux workshops will just use LiveCD or USB.

 

But Linux could be loaded after the conference.

 

The budget decision is ultimately OSGeo and GISSA's call; we hope to
have that in a day or two. 

 

Gavin 

 

________________________________

From: foss4g2008loc-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
[mailto:foss4g2008loc-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Zoltan
Szecsei
Sent: 02 September 2008 02:59 PM
To: FOSS4G2008 local organising committee
Subject: Re: [Foss4g2008loc] PC's for FOSS4G

 

burnie nawn wrote: 


 
So the question remains:
Do we buy or do we hire, and if we buy, what do we do with the PC's?
  


Apologies for not following this thread in detail, but do we have any
quotes for purchasing the PCs?
What is the required config?

Before you all jump on me about the config question, I want to propose
multiseat Linux boxes - hence we would need to know if the software that
needs to run on this PCs, will cope with this sort of config.

Just (not so) BTW: I have been using 3-seater multiseat Ubuntu boxes in
my GIS map compilation production line faultlessly for the last 2 years.
Typical config is: Motherboard with 3 PCI Express slots, 3 VGA cards, 3
LCD monitors and 3 USB keyboard/mouse inputs. So, 1 computer, three
simultaneous users.
Tou can go higher than 3, but finding the right HW would be a challenge.

We could also consider LTSP, but maybe not.

I have the knowledge and buying power (ie: purchase components from
direct importers) to spec and purchase these machines and they could
even be built by the guys we buy the components from (typically R200
assembly charge) - but I do not have the resources to load & configure
Ubuntu Linux, nor to set up the PCs at CTICC.

Should we even be thinking of going down this road?

my 2c
Zoltan





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Zoltan Szecsei
Geograph (Pty) Ltd.
P.O. Box 31255, Tokai 7966, South Africa.
 
B3-106 Tokai Village, cnr Vans/Tokai Rds,
Tokai 7945, Western Cape, South Africa.
 
Tel: +27-21-7154329  Mobile: +27-83-6004028
Fax: +27-86-6115323
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