I HATE WALLMART with a passion, but they have a bare bones for $238:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=3212101&cat=3951&type=19&dept=3944&path=0%3A3944%3A3951%3A41937%3A86796%3A86798


I bet you could find similar at a nicer retailer.


On Sat, 2 Oct 2004 10:49:22 -0500, Bryan Zimmer <baz at winternet.com> wrote:
> Unfortunately people are not rational about computers. They are like members
> of the family. As a result, people bang the around, put food near them,
> curse them out, love them to death, care for them poorly but innocently. No
> wonder there is so much work for those of us who make a living from these
> types of people!
> 
> My friend, I don"t want to give her real name, which is Cindy, so I will
> call her Samantha. Anyhow, Sam had a relationship going with her computer
> that was wholesome and innocent in most ways that I could tell, except the
> other family members would burn questionable CDs and in general treat it
> according to somewhat lower standards than did Samantha.
> 
> Samantha's computer was an XP, probably with a Pentium III, 265 Megs RAM,
> and a hard drive that must have been 60 megabytes. I didn't study the
> ROM-BIOS setup screen that closely, but you get the idea, a machine about 3
> years old, maybe a little more.
> 
> It was used so well, or should I say so frequently that eventually it
> started breaking down, and in the end, lost its operating system at a very
> crucial moment. Microsoft now DESTROYS any machine that doesn't have a
> pre-purchased license. I wouldn't dream of putting an untested OS on my
> equipment, but they have the policy, and they won. Until I sue them.
> 
> Anyway, sorry to bore you with this, my main reason for writing was that I
> am looking for a similar machine for about $300 dollars. Not more, hopefully
> less. Hers would have brought considerably less at Computer Renaissance, the
> CD drive had stopped working.
> 
> OK,. now after all hat, is it even conceivable to buy a PIII computer for
> $300? I have the RAM, I have a few components, only the tower is necessary.
> And if the CD drive works, I bet that would be worth a little more than 300.
> I don't know if I'm fooling myself, but recently I bought as Pentium IV with
> 1 GIG memory and a 160 G hard drive, plus a few extras. For about $800.
> After rebates. For real.
> 
> So let me know if there are any nibbles of interest out there. I have an
> open mind and a very slim wallet. The prices I reluctantly listed above are
> regrettably all  I have to work with. If it's not enough, maybe we could buy
> parts of your working system. Who knows. She is clear on wanting XP home
> edition. Like I said, she could probably be converted to Linux if Linux runs
> AOL. I know Netscape has made something of a comeback on Linux boxes. Not
> Mesilla, but commercial Netscape 7.2, probably complete with AIM.
> 
> Let me know,
> 
> BAZ
> baz at winternet dot com
> 
> BAZ
> -------
> Bryan Zimmer
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Scot Jenkins" <scot at thinkunix.net>
> To: "TCLUG Mailing List" <tclug-list at mn-linux.org>
> Sent: Saturday, October 02, 2004 12:44 AM
> Subject: Re: [TCLUG] Computer donations
> 
> > Bryan Zimmer wrote:
> >> I know of at least one person who is in need of a computer. Her
> >> motherboard
> >> was fried and now the computer is of no use at all except for certain
> >> parts
> >> (memory, hard drive, the sort of thing). It does not boot and has no
> >> CD-ROM
> >> drive to boot from.
> >>
> >> I truly need to find something for her. She is not only a friend but sees
> >> me
> >> as being able to "fix" most computer problems. I told her I couldn't
> >> resurrect from the dead, but she still thinks I can produce a working
> >> computer. I considered putting in a new motherboard, but the fact was
> >> that
> >> the computer was beginning to enter its "twilight months". It was
> >> starting
> >> to be one thing after another. Not worth the cost of repairs, many of
> >> which
> >> were done as a favor to a friend.
> >>
> >> If anyone has, or know of a computer capable of running Windows XP (or
> >> possibly she will resort to Linux...can Linux run AOL?), I would
> >> appreciate
> >> it.
> >
> > What exactly does your friend do with a computer?  If she's just using
> > the internet over dialup (email, web browsing), and the occassional
> > MSWord doc, she can probably get by with lower end hardware.
> >
> > I have an older P166 with 128 MB RAM that runs win2k respectibly.  I was
> > pretty surprised.  I don't want to start a flame war, but on this same
> > hardware IE6 is much faster for surfing then the latest Mozilla under
> > Linux.  Don't get me wrong, Linux as an OS is faster, but Mozilla is
> > just a slow pig compared to IE on this old dog.
> >
> > My point is that there's plenty of old hardware (usually available for
> > little or no cost), that still has plenty of usable life left in it.
> > Why not put it to good use?  Do most people really need a 2 or 3 Ghz
> > processor with 128 or 256 MB of RAM on their video card just to write a
> > word doc or check email?
> > --
> > scot
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota
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