Wee electrical waste/ computers

Has anyone had experience of recycling computers and installing linux? Reason I ask is there are a percentage of computers that are new/unused being scrapped as they have volume licence keys.

to me this seems a waste when the hardware is good and there is a posibility of diverting them.

whether they were given away or a small charge was made-how and where would you distribute them?

thanks

Easiest way to distribute for free is on somewhere like freecycle.

There are plenty of people who do exactly that on freecycle, although not too sure about the Linux side of things.

Most "refurbished" computers are offered with no license, or no software.

I do know someone in Wrexham was pre-installing Windows as an OEM installer (not sure how), so people could just type in their product key when they turned it on.

As for getting hold of hardware, you could just ask on freecycle (i.e. tell people you are recycling), or approach corporate users who often bin perfectly usable stuff. Unfortunately, the latter will often remove HDs for data security reasons before donating though. Only way to persuade otherwise is to offer military grade data wiping service (which they may even pay you for!)

Freecycle: http://uk.freecycle.org/

thanks for the reply, will look into freecycle

http://www.computeraid.org/ I don't work for them, came across them because at work they wanted to decommission some old PC bases.

had a quick look through their site, am I being blind but I see no comment on what os they install?

teaker1s said: had a quick look through their site, am I being blind but I see no comment on what os they install?

http://www.computeraid.org/TechnicalSpecs.htm

Software:

As standard our machines do not come with operating systems or with any applications software. You may wish to obtain and install this yourself locally because it may be cheaper for you to obtain it than for us to buy it here. If you require assistance sourcing Microsoft products in your own country then we may be able to help.

Computer Aid International is, however, a Microsoft Authorised Refurbisher, which allows us to install a Microsoft Windows 2000 or XP licensed operating system only at a cost of £5.00 per machine .

We can also supply Ubuntu Linux and Open Office open source software (operating system and applications). If supplied on CD-ROM this is free. To pre-install on hard drives we charge £5.00 per PC. Please ask if you require this service.