6 ms·

84-Year-Old Volunteer Rebuilds and Sends Linux Laptops to Africa

107 points by notsony 11y ago

notsony 11y ago
I hope the laptops make it to the kids in schools and not harvested by traders looking to flog them in the local market.
- backtoyoujim 11y ago
  Unless you could make an app for that ... then get it funded.
- 88e282102ae2e5b 11y ago
  Even if kids somehow got the laptops, there would be overwhelming pressure in a lot of families to sell them (not just because it could earn one or two month's salary, but you'd also shed the risk of having it destroyed or stolen, and the neighbors might otherwise assume you have more money than you really do because you seem to be able to afford expensive electronics).
  - sangnoir 11y ago
    An actual African here, I apologise in advance for the rant. Your comment is an amazing over-generalization of 1.1 billion people in 54 countries, Africa is a very diverse place, but you only see the worst of it ("feed these sorry kids for only a dollar a day") The article itself was rather vague on where exactly the laptops are sent (to schools? NGOs? families?), not even the country (or region) are mentioned. No sir, 'computers are being sent to Africa'. I think you're projecting western values (strong individualism) to the African context, and your conclusion "neighbours jealous of expensive electronics". How about "neighbours kids also share in using the expensive electronics"? In rural areas, residential clusters are typically made of extended family, so that neighbour is probably a sister or cousin. I have lived in 3 countries in southern (small 's') Africa, I can assure you that education is seen as more important that "2 months salary", some parents pay way more than that in annual school fees.
    - 88e282102ae2e5b 11y ago
      You're definitely right, I should have added more qualifiers to that comment. I didn't want to paint the entire continent with a broad brush, but rather caution against blind giving with the expectation that things will go right. The mentality that I described is absolutely prevalent in Benin, where I lived for several years. So what I should have said was, there's at least one example of counter-intuitive social dynamics in one African country, so it would make sense to explore those in the place where you intend to make a donation.
finnjohnsen2 11y ago
my brain saw: "84-year-old rebuilds [himself] and sends linux laptops to africa", and was confused how he was able to fix his old body
- callalex 11y ago
  In the future please refrain from making comments like this. If we all made a post every time we misread a headline, the comments section would be unusably stuffed with nonsense.
agumonkey 11y ago
I smile thinking these guys will be as productive and probably use these laptops longer than most people in the 'developed' world. Only drawback, power consumption; something that may matter more for them than for us.
- duskwuff 11y ago
  The power consumption of most laptops, outside of "gaming laptops", tends to be pretty reasonable. They're designed to be battery powered, after all. :)
- 88e282102ae2e5b 11y ago
  If someone is rich enough that selling the laptop wouldn't be the best option, they can probably already afford the electricity.
  - agumonkey 11y ago
    At the risk of sounding cliche, I thought regular access wasn't guaranteed everywhere.
    - 88e282102ae2e5b 11y ago
      Sure, but you only need a few hours of electricity to keep them on all day. If the battery is at the end of its life cycle, you can always buy a UPS.
eupharis 11y ago
Free Geek is a great organization. Like this guy, I knew very little about Linux or programming before volunteering there. Fast forward five years and I spend all day monkeying with Linux boxes at work. Free Geek was a perfect introduction to this wonderful world.
- vijayr 11y ago
  The best volunteering opportunities are those where one can learn something new and/or interact with those people which normally they wouldn't. I've washed dishes, worked in a warehouse, written code etc - they were all fun, but the dishwashing became boring after a few weeks. If every volunteering opportunity mentioned what people would learn, they might increase participation.
88e282102ae2e5b 11y ago
I worked at a high school in a relatively small (electrified) village in West Africa. After some months of working there I was telling my principal that I would keep in touch with my family by email, usually at a cyber cafe in a nearby city. To my surprise he told me I could just use the school computers, which I had never seen or heard of. "But don't tell any of the other teachers I let you do this." So he gave me the key to the one building in the school that was locked, which contained six (!) working computers that had been donated by some European organization, all with dial-up internet access. The room was also full of brand new textbooks, which the children didn't have access to. In fact, the room's only real purpose seemed to be as a home for a large colony of bats. When I asked the obvious question "why aren't you using any of this?!" the answer was that no one knew how to use the computers, and that they were waiting for an IT teacher to get transferred to the school. Eventually the students were given access to the books, though this seems to have been looked upon very skeptically because the administration wasn't sure how they were going to let the students use them in a way that they wouldn't end up ruining them (by getting them wet, writing in them, etc). It's important to understand that scenarios like this do occur and also how they work, if you're giving away free stuff to developing nations. My rule of thumb is that if you don't want to put any thought into how your donation is making the world a better place, it's probable that it either won't be used at all, or it will just be resold. The latter possibility at least in my mind is not so bad, but others may not be so happy about that outcome.
- scoot 11y ago
  Take a listen [1].You'll be amazed at the ingenuity. No teacher required! [1] http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_educa...
  - technomancy 11y ago
    The point stands that the administration is likely to get in the way of donated equipment being put to proper use by the children though.
- nrao123 11y ago
FrankenPC 11y ago
I wonder about doing this with older Android phones. Once rooted they are powerful platforms with multi-core processors and every wireless tech imaginable pre-integrated. They are insanely power efficient as well. I guess the point is to get children access to full on business platforms so this is not the same thing. But still, many have USB/Bluetooth keyboard/mouse support. So, it's still very similar.
- spiritplumber 11y ago
  I gave a big box of G1's that way to a guy in Zambia (rooted, and custom kernel that enabled the serial port on the extra UsbExt wires). I was told that they didn't need any more after that. This was in 2012ish.
  - cpeterso 11y ago
    Were the devices still running Android? Or are there "real" Linux distros with Android device deivers?
    - spiritplumber 11y ago
      Android.
- bane 11y ago
  Android does have keyboard and mouse support. An Android device can in theory make a decent Linux-ish device -- some even have monitor out. Desktop-like apps (along with browsers): * https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.andropenoffice https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.andropenof... * https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.octave https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.octave * https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.icecoldapps.serversultimatepro https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.icecoldapp... * https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jackpal.androidterm https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jackpal.androi... * https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=stericson.busybox https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=stericson.busy... * https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hipipal.qpy3 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hipipal.qp... I haven't tried all these (never needed to), but I can see some scenarios where these might make a passable desktop alternative.
jrapdx3 11y ago
Very nice story. FreeGeek has been a fixture here in Portland for many years doing great work in the community, promoting open-source long before gaining wide acceptance enjoyed today. FreeGeek sells stuff to the general public--I have several laptops I bought there for my business. A real asset is the steady volume of old components on hand, things like floppy disk and optical drives, controllers, IDE and SCSI cables, the kinds of items that are needed to keep equipment running, or necessary for reading old archives. I keep thinking, one of these days, when I have the time, I'll volunteer at the Geek. I anticipate it will be a very rewarding experience.
samchang1 11y ago
This is amazing. You won't like to hear this, but this guy is probably doing more important work (literally world-changing) than about 95% of Silicon Valley startup employees reading hackernews.
M8 11y ago
Linux? Don't you think that's cruel - they have suffered enough!
- jotm 11y ago
  Uh, when was the last time you used it?
- keithpeter 11y ago
  Quote from OA "The ThinkPads, which run on Intel Pentium M single core, 32-bit processors and hold less than 2 Gigabytes of RAM, were state-of-the-art 10 years ago but are far outdated by today's standards." What OS would you suggest as an alternative? Just in case you meant OpenBSD or something...
- 88e282102ae2e5b 11y ago
  You should try Xubuntu 15.04, and look at it from the perspective of someone who's never used a computer before. It's got a simple, clean interface that any kid can figure out. And when the computer crashes (which it will) you don't have to pay for a pirated copy of Windows.
yitchelle 11y ago
I am on freecycle.org. I keep seeing request from this one guy that request for any old computers that are being "recycled" because it is too old. He rebuilds them, and then, donates it to families that are not able to afford a computer. Occasionally, he would put the rebuilt computers back into freecycle.org as a "freecycled" item.

107 points by notsony 11y ago

I hope the laptops make it to the kids in schools and not harvested by traders looking to flog them in the local market.

backtoyoujim 11y ago
Unless you could make an app for that ... then get it funded.
88e282102ae2e5b 11y ago
Even if kids somehow got the laptops, there would be overwhelming pressure in a lot of families to sell them (not just because it could earn one or two month's salary, but you'd also shed the risk of having it destroyed or stolen, and the neighbors might otherwise assume you have more money than you really do because you seem to be able to afford expensive electronics).
- sangnoir 11y ago
  An actual African here, I apologise in advance for the rant. Your comment is an amazing over-generalization of 1.1 billion people in 54 countries, Africa is a very diverse place, but you only see the worst of it ("feed these sorry kids for only a dollar a day") The article itself was rather vague on where exactly the laptops are sent (to schools? NGOs? families?), not even the country (or region) are mentioned. No sir, 'computers are being sent to Africa'. I think you're projecting western values (strong individualism) to the African context, and your conclusion "neighbours jealous of expensive electronics". How about "neighbours kids also share in using the expensive electronics"? In rural areas, residential clusters are typically made of extended family, so that neighbour is probably a sister or cousin. I have lived in 3 countries in southern (small 's') Africa, I can assure you that education is seen as more important that "2 months salary", some parents pay way more than that in annual school fees.
  - 88e282102ae2e5b 11y ago
    You're definitely right, I should have added more qualifiers to that comment. I didn't want to paint the entire continent with a broad brush, but rather caution against blind giving with the expectation that things will go right. The mentality that I described is absolutely prevalent in Benin, where I lived for several years. So what I should have said was, there's at least one example of counter-intuitive social dynamics in one African country, so it would make sense to explore those in the place where you intend to make a donation.

finnjohnsen2 11y ago

my brain saw: "84-year-old rebuilds [himself] and sends linux laptops to africa", and was confused how he was able to fix his old body

callalex 11y ago
In the future please refrain from making comments like this. If we all made a post every time we misread a headline, the comments section would be unusably stuffed with nonsense.

agumonkey 11y ago

I smile thinking these guys will be as productive and probably use these laptops longer than most people in the 'developed' world. Only drawback, power consumption; something that may matter more for them than for us.

duskwuff 11y ago
The power consumption of most laptops, outside of "gaming laptops", tends to be pretty reasonable. They're designed to be battery powered, after all. :)
88e282102ae2e5b 11y ago
If someone is rich enough that selling the laptop wouldn't be the best option, they can probably already afford the electricity.
- agumonkey 11y ago
  At the risk of sounding cliche, I thought regular access wasn't guaranteed everywhere.
  - 88e282102ae2e5b 11y ago
    Sure, but you only need a few hours of electricity to keep them on all day. If the battery is at the end of its life cycle, you can always buy a UPS.

eupharis 11y ago

Free Geek is a great organization. Like this guy, I knew very little about Linux or programming before volunteering there. Fast forward five years and I spend all day monkeying with Linux boxes at work. Free Geek was a perfect introduction to this wonderful world.

vijayr 11y ago
The best volunteering opportunities are those where one can learn something new and/or interact with those people which normally they wouldn't. I've washed dishes, worked in a warehouse, written code etc - they were all fun, but the dishwashing became boring after a few weeks. If every volunteering opportunity mentioned what people would learn, they might increase participation.

88e282102ae2e5b 11y ago

I worked at a high school in a relatively small (electrified) village in West Africa. After some months of working there I was telling my principal that I would keep in touch with my family by email, usually at a cyber cafe in a nearby city. To my surprise he told me I could just use the school computers, which I had never seen or heard of. "But don't tell any of the other teachers I let you do this." So he gave me the key to the one building in the school that was locked, which contained six (!) working computers that had been donated by some European organization, all with dial-up internet access. The room was also full of brand new textbooks, which the children didn't have access to. In fact, the room's only real purpose seemed to be as a home for a large colony of bats. When I asked the obvious question "why aren't you using any of this?!" the answer was that no one knew how to use the computers, and that they were waiting for an IT teacher to get transferred to the school. Eventually the students were given access to the books, though this seems to have been looked upon very skeptically because the administration wasn't sure how they were going to let the students use them in a way that they wouldn't end up ruining them (by getting them wet, writing in them, etc). It's important to understand that scenarios like this do occur and also how they work, if you're giving away free stuff to developing nations. My rule of thumb is that if you don't want to put any thought into how your donation is making the world a better place, it's probable that it either won't be used at all, or it will just be resold. The latter possibility at least in my mind is not so bad, but others may not be so happy about that outcome.

scoot 11y ago
Take a listen [1].You'll be amazed at the ingenuity. No teacher required! [1] http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_educa...
- technomancy 11y ago
  The point stands that the administration is likely to get in the way of donated equipment being put to proper use by the children though.
nrao123 11y ago

FrankenPC 11y ago

I wonder about doing this with older Android phones. Once rooted they are powerful platforms with multi-core processors and every wireless tech imaginable pre-integrated. They are insanely power efficient as well. I guess the point is to get children access to full on business platforms so this is not the same thing. But still, many have USB/Bluetooth keyboard/mouse support. So, it's still very similar.

spiritplumber 11y ago
I gave a big box of G1's that way to a guy in Zambia (rooted, and custom kernel that enabled the serial port on the extra UsbExt wires). I was told that they didn't need any more after that. This was in 2012ish.
- cpeterso 11y ago
  Were the devices still running Android? Or are there "real" Linux distros with Android device deivers?
  - spiritplumber 11y ago
    Android.
bane 11y ago
Android does have keyboard and mouse support. An Android device can in theory make a decent Linux-ish device -- some even have monitor out. Desktop-like apps (along with browsers): * https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.andropenoffice https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.andropenof... * https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.octave https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.octave * https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.icecoldapps.serversultimatepro https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.icecoldapp... * https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jackpal.androidterm https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jackpal.androi... * https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=stericson.busybox https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=stericson.busy... * https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hipipal.qpy3 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hipipal.qp... I haven't tried all these (never needed to), but I can see some scenarios where these might make a passable desktop alternative.

jrapdx3 11y ago

Very nice story. FreeGeek has been a fixture here in Portland for many years doing great work in the community, promoting open-source long before gaining wide acceptance enjoyed today. FreeGeek sells stuff to the general public--I have several laptops I bought there for my business. A real asset is the steady volume of old components on hand, things like floppy disk and optical drives, controllers, IDE and SCSI cables, the kinds of items that are needed to keep equipment running, or necessary for reading old archives. I keep thinking, one of these days, when I have the time, I'll volunteer at the Geek. I anticipate it will be a very rewarding experience.

samchang1 11y ago

This is amazing. You won't like to hear this, but this guy is probably doing more important work (literally world-changing) than about 95% of Silicon Valley startup employees reading hackernews.

M8 11y ago

Linux? Don't you think that's cruel - they have suffered enough!

jotm 11y ago
Uh, when was the last time you used it?
keithpeter 11y ago
Quote from OA "The ThinkPads, which run on Intel Pentium M single core, 32-bit processors and hold less than 2 Gigabytes of RAM, were state-of-the-art 10 years ago but are far outdated by today's standards." What OS would you suggest as an alternative? Just in case you meant OpenBSD or something...
88e282102ae2e5b 11y ago
You should try Xubuntu 15.04, and look at it from the perspective of someone who's never used a computer before. It's got a simple, clean interface that any kid can figure out. And when the computer crashes (which it will) you don't have to pay for a pirated copy of Windows.

yitchelle 11y ago

I am on freecycle.org. I keep seeing request from this one guy that request for any old computers that are being "recycled" because it is too old. He rebuilds them, and then, donates it to families that are not able to afford a computer. Occasionally, he would put the rebuilt computers back into freecycle.org as a "freecycled" item.