Free Software Community Project needs Hardware

Manchester Free Software are looking to replace a low-spec server which powers a free software suite at the Marbella Cafin Manchester, and is used to provide zero-cost Internet access and as the basis for education and training projects.

Manchester Free Software [1] recently set up a free software suite at the Marbella Caf&eaute; [2] at 52 Newton Street in the Northern Quarter, using machines previously used by Free Space Manchester and originally from the Basement Social Centre.

This suite formed the nucleus of our Software Freedom Day event [3], provided free internet access at the café and also was set to be used for free software training and education.

Unfortunately, the server which powered this LTSP [4] setup died this evening through a motherboard failure, so the suite is currently down. We have no budget for a replacement, but only need a fairly modest hardware. I thought it'd be worth asking around and seeing whether anybody could help us.

The current server is a Sempron 3000, with 2GB RAM. This is actually overkill for 3 LTSP clients. I believe that the RAID-1 SATA drives will probably still be OK. If you have a spare machine of a spec in this ballpark in the Manchester area (or can get it to Manchester), please e-mail me on

grimoire@cultofperf.org.uk

Manchester Free Software and our friends and companions in the free software world are keen to get this suite back up and running - it's the only place in Manchester providing free and zero-cost Internet access, and will be used to help educate people about and with free software.

Please propogate this e-mail to lists you think might be useful.

Dave

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