Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2009 > January > 28 > Entry
Hardware drive needs your old computers
When last we spoke to Ken Starks of Austin’s HeliOS Project, there had been a dustup involving AISD and some national publicity regarding LINUX.
We won’t go into that whole story (you can read about it here and here, but one thing lost in that bit of news might have been the work that Starks does in Austin to bring computers to kids who might not otherwise be able to afford them.
The HeliOS Project takes donated computers and installs the free-to-use LINUX operating system on them, then gives those computers to community centers and to students. Open-source software (for, say, word processing and Internet browsing) is also installed.
I know these are tough times, but if you have a computer that’s sitting around collecting dust, it would be a huge help to this effort. Their 2009 Hardware Drive has just launched. You can learn more about HeliOS here. Do what you can to help.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to see if I can get rid of my wife’s ancient refurbished Dell desktop system; we weren’t using it anyway.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment Categories: Austin, Computers, Gadgets
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By Skip Guenter
July 1, 2009 1:41 PM | Link to this
Thanx for the coverage of a noble cause! Their next big event is coming up 8/1/2009 with a goal of putting together 200 computers that day! This will be a pilot model for other cities to copy.
There are some immediate hardware needs. Info on the HeliOS website. See ya there.
By Ken Holmes
January 29, 2009 10:22 PM | Link to this
I have followed Ken's efforts for a few years. His efforts to get computers to young students are in the forefront now and he works hard to make the initiative succeed. I want to mention something else. Ken has also given his time and effort to help senior citizens have functioning computers. He worked with a team of volunteers that make the rounds to senior living centers. Ken and his team members would attempt to restore malfunctioning systems, often running Windows. If the installed system could not be restored, the team offered to install a version of Linux. This installation allowed these seniors to continue to use their computer as they had before, while sparing them a cost they could ill afford. Ken has been an inspiration to me and to others who come to know of his diligent efforts.