Someone has sent me this question

"Do you have any sources who could source 25 very simple
reconditioned heavy laptops which could run from a wireless network and
run only word, excel and powerpoint?"

I assume he wants the machines to come with the Microsoft applications
and licences, and I assume the "heavy" is to make walking more
difficult.

Has anyone any recommendations or other suggestions? I think it's
probably for a school or youth association.


--
Bill

Bill wrote:

Has anyone any recommendations or other suggestions? I think it's
probably for a school or youth association.

Morgan computers sell that sort of thing.

http://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/

--
Jeremy C B Nicoll - my opinions are my own.

Email sent to my from-address will be deleted. Instead, please reply
to replacing "aaa" by "284".

On 01/08/2012 14:34, Bill wrote:
Someone has sent me this question

"Do you have any sources who could source 25 very simple
reconditioned heavy laptops which could run from a wireless network and
run only word, excel and powerpoint?"

I assume he wants the machines to come with the Microsoft applications
and licences, and I assume the "heavy" is to make walking more difficult.

Would whatever deal Morgan has on refurbed laptops coupled with Office
compatible freeware do the job. Does it have to have full VBA support
and exact Microsoft Office functional compatibility or will almost do?

You should budget for AV software too or at least have something pretty
good running since this sort of setup attracts malware like moths to a
flame. Visitors try dodgy sites and software they wouldn't risk at home
(unless you disable all install execute privileges very carefully).

USB memory sticks are potentially dangerous vectors these days.

If it is for a charity or other good cause try scrounging from one of
your local large corporate IT places (preferably through personal
contacts), but AIUI due to the new WEE regulations they are no longer
able to make such donations (or so I was told by one of the sources I
used to get stuff from for charity work).

Has anyone any recommendations or other suggestions? I think it's
probably for a school or youth association.

You can make laptops arbitrarily heavy by adding a steel wire shaped
around the hinge with brazed loops on. A plastic coated steel hawser
then passed through each one on the bench and an immovable object. It
won't stop a determined thief but it will stop them casually going
walkies without boltcutter or hacksaw.

It isn't pretty but a lot cheaper than the official security devices.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

Thanks. I had looked there, but not found anything that includes the
Microsoft Office software. The firm I've dealt with once in the recent
past, Tier1, also seems to be the same.

I was hoping there might be someone selling complete ex-corporate
machines with the software still in place.

In message id, Jeremy
Nicoll - news posts writes
Bill wrote:

Has anyone any recommendations or other suggestions? I think it's
probably for a school or youth association.

Morgan computers sell that sort of thing.

http://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/


--
Bill

In article ,
Bill wrote:
I assume he wants the machines to come with the Microsoft applications
and licences, and I assume the "heavy" is to make walking more
difficult.

Be simpler to just use desktops?

--
*Honk if you love peace and quiet*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In message , Martin Brown
writes
Would whatever deal Morgan has on refurbed laptops coupled with Office
compatible freeware do the job. Does it have to have full VBA support
and exact Microsoft Office functional compatibility or will almost do?

Thanks Martin, the complete reply was very helpful.

I use Open Office here, but suspect it is actually too versatile and
complex for what he wants. I'm assuming something like Office 97 would
be about right.

He works in a school, but runs a few sports clubs/teams. Maybe some of
them are charities. I'll ask him as I hope to see him this weekend.

What I don't want to do is get involved in any refurbishing myself. He
already turns up with laptops saying "could you just look at this"!
--
Bill

In article ,
Bill wrote:
What I don't want to do is get involved in any refurbishing myself. He
already turns up with laptops saying "could you just look at this"!

The first thing to fail in a laptop is the battery. If he doesn't want
them to be easily portable, why a battery powered device?

--
*(on a baby-size shirt) "Party -- my crib -- two a.m

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Bill wrote:
Thanks. I had looked there, but not found anything that includes the
Microsoft Office software. The firm I've dealt with once in the recent
past, Tier1, also seems to be the same.

I was hoping there might be someone selling complete ex-corporate
machines with the software still in place.

Ex-corporate machines normally have either new blank HDs or the old ones
which have been wiped securely, removing all software often including
the OS, as the licences don't permit resale, nor will most company's
security policies.

Do they *need* Microsoft software, or would any office suite capable of
being set to work and save MS formats acceptable?

In message id, Jeremy
Nicoll - news posts writes
Bill wrote:

Has anyone any recommendations or other suggestions? I think it's
probably for a school or youth association.

Morgan computers sell that sort of thing.

http://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/


They usually have some with the usual manufacturer's bloatware or MS
Works installed.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

Bill wrote:
In message , Martin Brown
writes
Would whatever deal Morgan has on refurbed laptops coupled with Office
compatible freeware do the job. Does it have to have full VBA support
and exact Microsoft Office functional compatibility or will almost do?

Thanks Martin, the complete reply was very helpful.

I use Open Office here, but suspect it is actually too versatile and
complex for what he wants. I'm assuming something like Office 97 would
be about right.

Office 97 will not run with any OS later than XP. It won't even try to
install. :-/

The latest version of Works might suit their needs. I know that Works
4.0 *will* install and run on Windows 7.


--
Tciao for Now!

John.

On Aug 1, 3:10*pm, Martin Brown
wrote:
On 01/08/2012 14:34, Bill wrote:

Someone has sent me this question

"Do you have any sources who could source 25 very simple
*reconditioned heavy laptops which could run from a wireless network and
*run only word, excel and powerpoint?"

I assume he wants the machines to come with the Microsoft applications
and licences, and I assume the "heavy" is to make walking more difficult.

On 01/08/2012 16:43, Man at B&Q wrote:
On Aug 1, 3:10 pm, Martin Brown
wrote:
On 01/08/2012 14:34, Bill wrote:

Someone has sent me this question

"Do you have any sources who could source 25 very simple
reconditioned heavy laptops which could run from a wireless network and
run only word, excel and powerpoint?"

I assume he wants the machines to come with the Microsoft applications
and licences, and I assume the "heavy" is to make walking more difficult.

Would whatever deal Morgan has on refurbed laptops coupled with Office
compatible freeware do the job. Does it have to have full VBA support
and exact Microsoft Office functional compatibility or will almost do?

You should budget for AV software too

If you want to potentially kill the performance of the old laptop.

Any machine these days needs at least 2GB of ram to run an AV. But in
the OP's position running without AV would be tantamount to suicide!

It is a valid point though that buying laptops (which hold value rather
too well secondhand) is not cost effective if mobility is not required.

My desktop boots *much* faster since deleting MSE.

MBQ

There are better free AV products that don't completely hammer
performance. He should probably get his friend to consider SFF Dell or
HP boxes since they are usually better price performance than laptops.
Memory for desktops is cheaper as well (again secondhand).

Also have at least one machine in the 2GHz 2Core 4GB ram class that is
able to do basic image processing and render video albeit slowly.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

John Williamson wrote:
In message , Martin Brown
writes
Would whatever deal Morgan has on refurbed laptops coupled with
Office compatible freeware do the job. Does it have to have full VBA
support and exact Microsoft Office functional compatibility or will
almost do?

Thanks Martin, the complete reply was very helpful.

I use Open Office here, but suspect it is actually too versatile and
complex for what he wants. I'm assuming something like Office 97 would
be about right.

Office 97 will not run with any OS later than XP. It won't even try to
install. :-/
That is a positive advantage!
Fairly soon, XP will get even better - m$ will stop supporting it!

On 01/08/2012 14:34, Bill wrote:

Someone has sent me this question

"Do you have any sources who could source 25 very simple
reconditioned heavy laptops which could run from a wireless network and
run only word, excel and powerpoint?"

I assume he wants the machines to come with the Microsoft applications
and licences, and I assume the "heavy" is to make walking more difficult.

I would say your chances of finding that quantity of laptops in the
configuration you want is slim. Most companies that are of sufficent
size to offload that many at a time are probably also MS volume
licensing customers. Hence any machines they lob out probably come with
no software at all, or perhaps just a windows license.

Has anyone any recommendations or other suggestions? I think it's
probably for a school or youth association.

Reasonable spec second hand desktop machines would be much easier to
come by in with software. However you may not be able to acquire that
quantity at a time. (we sometimes get reasonable spec second hand stuff
in, but typically no more than 4 or 5 systems at a time). It might be
worth seeing if you have a local IT support company that deals mainly
with local small and medium sized businesses, and ask them to let you
know when one of their clients is upgrading.


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

John Rumm wrote:
On 01/08/2012 14:34, Bill wrote:

Someone has sent me this question

"Do you have any sources who could source 25 very simple
reconditioned heavy laptops which could run from a wireless network and
run only word, excel and powerpoint?"

I assume he wants the machines to come with the Microsoft applications
and licences, and I assume the "heavy" is to make walking more difficult.

I would say your chances of finding that quantity of laptops in the
configuration you want is slim. Most companies that are of sufficent
size to offload that many at a time are probably also MS volume
licensing customers. Hence any machines they lob out probably come with
no software at all, or perhaps just a windows license.

and go straight to the crusher as well.

They like the write down to offset against tax.

Has anyone any recommendations or other suggestions? I think it's
probably for a school or youth association.

Reasonable spec second hand desktop machines would be much easier to
come by in with software. However you may not be able to acquire that
quantity at a time. (we sometimes get reasonable spec second hand stuff
in, but typically no more than 4 or 5 systems at a time). It might be
worth seeing if you have a local IT support company that deals mainly
with local small and medium sized businesses, and ask them to let you
know when one of their clients is upgrading.




--
To people who know nothing, anything is possible.
To people who know too much, it is a sad fact
that they know how little is really possible -
and how hard it is to achieve it.

"Bill" wrote in message
...
Someone has sent me this question

"Do you have any sources who could source 25 very simple
reconditioned heavy laptops which could run from a wireless network and
run only word, excel and powerpoint?"

I assume he wants the machines to come with the Microsoft applications and
licences, and I assume the "heavy" is to make walking more difficult.

Has anyone any recommendations or other suggestions? I think it's probably
for a school or youth association.

There are special Microsoft prices for schools and some charitable
organizations so you may be better off buying that software separately.

Any machine these days needs at least 2GB of ram to run an AV.

Either (i) I am dreaming that this machine running XP with 1GB is
perfectly fine for internet/office apps/scanning and the like with
Symantec AV (and ZA firewall) or (ii) you may think you are speaking ex
cathedra but I am hearing something rather more lavatorial

--
Robin
reply to address is (meant to be) valid

Any machine these days needs at least 2GB of ram to run an AV.

Either (i) I am dreaming that this machine running XP with 1GB is
perfectly fine for internet/office apps/scanning and the like with
Symantec AV (and ZA firewall) or (ii) you may think you are speaking ex
cathedra but I am hearing something rather more lavatorial

--
Robin
reply to address is (meant to be) valid

On Wed, 1 Aug 2012 19:31:43 +0100, dennis@home wrote:

There are special Microsoft prices for schools and some charitable
organizations so you may be better off buying that software separately.

If the end user is a registered charity, then see
http://www.ctxchange.org/ who are an organisation managing
IT donations to UK charities. I've used them for Charities I
help. All that is paid is an admin fee.

--
John W

In most cases the licences are non transferable as they are bulk ones and
thus you cannot split up the licence in that way. Add to that the data
paranoia syndrome and the result tends to be a wiped or brand new drive.

Brian

--
--
From the sofa of Brian Gaff -

Blind user, so no pictures please!
"Bill" wrote in message
...
Thanks. I had looked there, but not found anything that includes the
Microsoft Office software. The firm I've dealt with once in the recent
past, Tier1, also seems to be the same.

I was hoping there might be someone selling complete ex-corporate machines
with the software still in place.

In message id, Jeremy
Nicoll - news posts writes
Bill wrote:

Has anyone any recommendations or other suggestions? I think it's
probably for a school or youth association.

Morgan computers sell that sort of thing.

http://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/


--
Bill

Yes, Lotus Symphony comes to mind here.

Brian

--
--
From the sofa of Brian Gaff -

Blind user, so no pictures please!
"John Williamson" wrote in message
...
Bill wrote:
Thanks. I had looked there, but not found anything that includes the
Microsoft Office software. The firm I've dealt with once in the recent
past, Tier1, also seems to be the same.

I was hoping there might be someone selling complete ex-corporate
machines with the software still in place.

Ex-corporate machines normally have either new blank HDs or the old ones
which have been wiped securely, removing all software often including the
OS, as the licences don't permit resale, nor will most company's security
policies.

Do they *need* Microsoft software, or would any office suite capable of
being set to work and save MS formats acceptable?

In message id, Jeremy
Nicoll - news posts writes
Bill wrote:

Has anyone any recommendations or other suggestions? I think it's
probably for a school or youth association.

Morgan computers sell that sort of thing.

http://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/


They usually have some with the usual manufacturer's bloatware or MS Works
installed.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

If its just word processing, Jarte might do the job. Carolina road software.

Brian

--
--
From the sofa of Brian Gaff -

Blind user, so no pictures please!
"Bill" wrote in message
...
In message , Martin Brown
writes
Would whatever deal Morgan has on refurbed laptops coupled with Office
compatible freeware do the job. Does it have to have full VBA support and
exact Microsoft Office functional compatibility or will almost do?

Thanks Martin, the complete reply was very helpful.

I use Open Office here, but suspect it is actually too versatile and
complex for what he wants. I'm assuming something like Office 97 would be
about right.

He works in a school, but runs a few sports clubs/teams. Maybe some of
them are charities. I'll ask him as I hope to see him this weekend.

What I don't want to do is get involved in any refurbishing myself. He
already turns up with laptops saying "could you just look at this"!
--
Bill

Yes, Lotus Symphony comes to mind here.

Brian


Or Open office, Its free and works well, happily opening and saving
Microsoft office files.

Mike

In article ,
Huge wrote:
Or Open office, Its free and works well, happily opening and saving
Microsoft office files.

I finally came across a Word file it wouldn't handle properly this week.

I've come across plenty Word files that Word wouldn't handle properly
either.

--
*Sleep with a photographer and watch things develop

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Huge wrote:
Or Open office, Its free and works well, happily opening and saving
Microsoft office files.

I finally came across a Word file it wouldn't handle properly this week.

I've come across plenty Word files that Word wouldn't handle properly
either.

+1


--
To people who know nothing, anything is possible.
To people who know too much, it is a sad fact
that they know how little is really possible -
and how hard it is to achieve it.

On 02/08/12 14:01, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Huge wrote:
Or Open office, Its free and works well, happily opening and saving
Microsoft office files.

I finally came across a Word file it wouldn't handle properly this week.

I've come across plenty Word files that Word wouldn't handle properly
either.

www.libreoffice.org
is better with word files than openoffice,
because ti has more people working on it

Thats why libreoffice now comes with ubuntu unity
http://www.ubuntu.com/

and it doesnt suffer from viruses or most malware

[g]

Brian Gaff wrote

In most cases the licences are non transferable as they are bulk ones and
thus you cannot split up the licence in that way. Add to that the data
paranoia syndrome and the result tends to be a wiped or brand new drive.

You don’t see too many brand new drives in refurbished laptops,
or brand new batterys either.

"Bill" wrote in message
...
Thanks. I had looked there, but not found anything that includes the
Microsoft Office software. The firm I've dealt with once in the recent
past, Tier1, also seems to be the same.

I was hoping there might be someone selling complete ex-corporate
machines with the software still in place.

In message id, Jeremy
Nicoll - news posts writes
Bill wrote:

Has anyone any recommendations or other suggestions? I think it's
probably for a school or youth association.

Morgan computers sell that sort of thing.

http://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/


--
Bill

On Aug 1, 2:34*pm, Bill wrote:
Someone has sent me this question

"Do you have any sources who could source 25 very simple
*reconditioned heavy laptops which could run from a wireless network and
*run only word, excel and powerpoint?"

I assume he wants the machines to come with the Microsoft applications
and licences, and I assume the "heavy" is to make walking more
difficult.

Has anyone any recommendations or other suggestions? I think it's
probably for a school or youth association.

That is a very strange request. Presumably there is a problem with
space?

Old equipment required oodles of desktop space. And soring them after
class is a nightmare without a room dedicated to them.

However a lot of reconditioned Compaq stuff and similar are fairly
small units for their P2 and 3 boxes. If you can get them all ytou
wiould have to spend on is some not too old thin monitors. You might
find them at car boots but obviously not in bulk at car-boots.

Here is a recycling charity that I know is very good for what they
attempt:
http://www.terc.org.uk/

Failing that it is a matter of scouring computer ads and computer
fairs.

If you make enquiries to recyclers you could ask for computer with the
MS license stickers if any and they will also clean the hard drive and
install Linux or if you require it Windows. You'd have to pay for
Windows on a box that doesn't have the license for the OS required.

You might consider Damn Small Linux and Tiny Core Linux. But software
suggestions can be never ending and they would be pointless without
some idea of what is needed.

With the smaller OSs the distro tends to come with the smallest
effective software such as AbiWord and a stand alone spread sheet
rather than full blooded office suites.

More complete modern Linux distros are designed to make the most of
modern hardware and not good with old stuff. Here is some stuff I
prepared earlier:

http://my.opera.com/Weatherlawyer/bl...omment94089852

On Aug 3, 11:06*am, Huge wrote:
On 2012-08-02, george - dicegeorge wrote:









On 02/08/12 14:01, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
* * Huge wrote:
Or Open office, Its free and works well, happily opening and saving
Microsoft office files.

I finally came across a Word file it wouldn't handle properly this week.

I've come across plenty Word files that Word wouldn't handle properly
either.

www.libreoffice.org
is better with word files than openoffice,
because ti has more people working on it

Thats why libreoffice now comes with ubuntu unity

Yes, but that means you have suffer Unity. And I'd rather gouge my eyes
out with a spoon.

+1

The reason I abandoned my latest trial with Ubuntu.

At least with Windows you do not immediately have to fart about
downloading and installing a replacement desktop.

MBQ

In message
,
Weatherlawyer writes
Here is a recycling charity that I know is very good for what they
attempt:
http://www.terc.org.uk/

To try to wind up this thread, here's where we are after having a brief
discussion about the actual need.

It's for a school that needs temporary computer provision. He is hoping
to connect 25 machines wirelessly. I have expressed grave doubts about
doing this with just one router or access point.

The school has MS Office licences so he doesn't need to buy machines
with that installed. He doesn't know which version they are on.

He is not sure whether the school can install the OS, but getting
machines with XP should be no problem.

He wants large laptops to get decent keyboards and all-in-one units,
ideally that can be run on battery for about 2 to 3 hours per day, as
the room only has standard desks without power. He was hoping to be able
to have all machines put away on charge overnight. I have expressed
doubts about the battery life and battery usability on old machines.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions of dealers and charity suppliers
here (the school is a registered charity). I will have a preliminary
ring around tomorrow to see if any have any suggestions or offers.

I, and he, certainly don't have the time or inclination to set anything
up with Linux for this. He just wants something that will work with no
fuss. He says they have a good IT technician to help setting it up and
who will sort out security issues.
--
Bill

Bill wrote
Weatherlawyer wrote

Here is a recycling charity that I know is very good for what they
attempt:
http://www.terc.org.uk/

To try to wind up this thread, here's where we are after having a brief
discussion about the actual need.

It's for a school that needs temporary computer provision. He is hoping to
connect 25 machines wirelessly. I have expressed grave doubts about doing
this with just one router or access point.

Our high schools do it like that fine, with netbooks.

The school has MS Office licences so he doesn't need to buy machines with
that installed. He doesn't know which version they are on.

He is not sure whether the school can install the OS, but getting machines
with XP should be no problem.

He wants large laptops to get decent keyboards and all-in-one units,
ideally that can be run on battery for about 2 to 3 hours per day, as the
room only has standard desks without power. He was hoping to be able to
have all machines put away on charge overnight. I have expressed doubts
about the battery life and battery usability on old machines.

Yeah, can't see that being very viable.

You can get replacement double capacity batterys for some of
them reasonably cheaply, I do that with the one I use when bottling
the beer and get much more than 2-3 hours a day on battery.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions of dealers and charity suppliers here
(the school is a registered charity). I will have a preliminary ring
around tomorrow to see if any have any suggestions or offers.

I, and he, certainly don't have the time or inclination to set anything up
with Linux for this. He just wants something that will work with no fuss.
He says they have a good IT technician to help setting it up and who will
sort out security issues.

On 07/08/2012 01:13, Bill wrote:
In message
,
Weatherlawyer writes
Here is a recycling charity that I know is very good for what they
attempt:
http://www.terc.org.uk/

To try to wind up this thread, here's where we are after having a brief
discussion about the actual need.

It's for a school that needs temporary computer provision. He is hoping
to connect 25 machines wirelessly. I have expressed grave doubts about
doing this with just one router or access point.

Likely to have problems with a 25-into-one connection, I'd have thought.
Depends if they all need access to something at the same time..??


The school has MS Office licences so he doesn't need to buy machines
with that installed. He doesn't know which version they are on.

He is not sure whether the school can install the OS, but getting
machines with XP should be no problem.

Ex-corporate machines seem to have the hard disk wiped - and you 'may'
get XP put on them by the vendor...
My experience with the company named below was that, in formatting the
hard drive, they also installed an OEM XP (which didn't match the COE
sticker on the laptop, so couldn't be legally registered). They's also
failed to provide the laptop-specific utilities - so power save didn't
work, neither did the various function keys (brightness / volume /
trackpad etc)
Took some hours trawling the net to get back to 'usable'.


He wants large laptops to get decent keyboards and all-in-one units,
ideally that can be run on battery for about 2 to 3 hours per day, as
the room only has standard desks without power. He was hoping to be able
to have all machines put away on charge overnight. I have expressed
doubts about the battery life and battery usability on old machines.

Battery is the thing that goes first - so budget for new 25 batteries to
go with the 25 laptops. My laptop, when running on battery, wants to dim
the screen to extend the battery life (can be defeated, but then the
battery life drops).


Thanks everyone for the suggestions of dealers and charity suppliers
here (the school is a registered charity). I will have a preliminary
ring around tomorrow to see if any have any suggestions or offers.

Avoid cheaplaptops.ie or any of their clone companies (generally part of
TekOne ITS UK Ltd) - I had a very bad experience with them. Don't deal
with any company that doesn't have a contact phone number listed on
their website. If your man is intent on following this route (which
seems full of potential problems) then he should be able to get a
reasonable discount on that quantity of boxes.


I, and he, certainly don't have the time or inclination to set anything
up with Linux for this. He just wants something that will work with no
fuss. He says they have a good IT technician to help setting it up and
who will sort out security issues.

Lucky old IT technician! - he's going to have so much fun!
If they've got their own IT tech then I'd be tempted to pass it over to
him / her. Otherwise you'll end up being an unpaid systems support
person for all 25 machines - and you'll be expected to fix everything...

I think if I had to go that way I'd find a local 'bucket' dealer and see
if I could get a good deal on 25 off last year's model _new_ machines -
at least that way you'll know where they've been, and there will be some
kind of come-back if any of them fail. If you need 25 seats then perhaps
you need a couple of spare machines..??

Sorry to be so negative - but I think you'll regret getting involved!
Adrian

Adrian Brentnall wrote:

Likely to have problems with a 25-into-one connection, I'd have thought.
Depends if they all need access to something at the same time..??

Student machines in schools tend to get used *exactly* like that,
everyone tries to log on at once and load work from last time, then
visit the same websites, then rush to print and/or save at the end of a
lesson and log off.

Adrian Brentnall wrote
Bill wrote
Weatherlawyer wrote

Here is a recycling charity that I know is very good for what they
attempt:
http://www.terc.org.uk/

To try to wind up this thread, here's where we are after having a brief
discussion about the actual need.

It's for a school that needs temporary computer provision. He is hoping
to connect 25 machines wirelessly. I have expressed grave doubts about
doing this with just one router or access point.

Likely to have problems with a 25-into-one connection, I'd have thought.

Nope, our highschools manage a lot more than that fine.

Depends if they all need access to something at the same time..??

Nope.

The school has MS Office licences so he doesn't need to buy machines
with that installed. He doesn't know which version they are on.

He is not sure whether the school can install the OS, but getting
machines with XP should be no problem.

Ex-corporate machines seem to have the hard disk wiped - and you 'may' get
XP put on them by the vendor...

My experience with the company named below was that, in formatting the
hard drive, they also installed an OEM XP (which didn't match the COE
sticker on the laptop, so couldn't be legally registered). They's also
failed to provide the laptop-specific utilities - so power save didn't
work, neither did the various function keys (brightness / volume /
trackpad etc)
Took some hours trawling the net to get back to 'usable'.

He wants large laptops to get decent keyboards and all-in-one units,
ideally that can be run on battery for about 2 to 3 hours per day, as the
room only has standard desks without power. He was hoping to be able to
have all machines put away on charge overnight. I have expressed
doubts about the battery life and battery usability on old machines.

Battery is the thing that goes first - so budget for new 25 batteries to
go with the 25 laptops. My laptop, when running on battery, wants to dim
the screen to extend the battery life (can be defeated, but then the
battery life drops).

Thanks everyone for the suggestions of dealers and charity suppliers
here (the school is a registered charity). I will have a preliminary
ring around tomorrow to see if any have any suggestions or offers.

Avoid cheaplaptops.ie or any of their clone companies (generally part of
TekOne ITS UK Ltd) - I had a very bad experience with them. Don't deal
with any company that doesn't have a contact phone number listed on their
website. If your man is intent on following this route (which seems full
of potential problems) then he should be able to get a reasonable discount
on that quantity of boxes.

I, and he, certainly don't have the time or inclination to set anything
up with Linux for this. He just wants something that will work with no
fuss. He says they have a good IT technician to help setting it up and
who will sort out security issues.

Lucky old IT technician! - he's going to have so much fun!
If they've got their own IT tech then I'd be tempted to pass it over to
him / her. Otherwise you'll end up being an unpaid systems support person
for all 25 machines - and you'll be expected to fix everything...

I think if I had to go that way I'd find a local 'bucket' dealer and see
if I could get a good deal on 25 off last year's model _new_ machines - at
least that way you'll know where they've been, and there will be some kind
of come-back if any of them fail. If you need 25 seats then perhaps you
need a couple of spare machines..??

Sorry to be so negative - but I think you'll regret getting involved!

On 07/08/2012 01:13, Bill wrote:
In message
,
Weatherlawyer writes
Here is a recycling charity that I know is very good for what they
attempt:
http://www.terc.org.uk/

To try to wind up this thread, here's where we are after having a brief
discussion about the actual need.

It's for a school that needs temporary computer provision. He is hoping
to connect 25 machines wirelessly. I have expressed grave doubts about
doing this with just one router or access point.


How about buying some new netbooks? These tend to be small, but external
keyboards are very cheap. Battery life will be good for 2 to 3 hours on
some netbooks.

If that's considered too costly, remember that you should get a decent
discount buying 25 in bulk. Then sell them off to the parents at the end
of the project. It may well cost the school less that way than by buying
clunking old machines that cause nothing but trouble and have no end value.