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The One Where I Try to be Useful for a Change
Last month, I sent out an APB to the tech peeps, asking what tool(s) they would recommend to lock down the 14 brand new public access computers my library had purchased. Based on their feedback, I finally settled on the Microsoft Shared Computer Toolkit, and sang its praises in a post which was subsequently swallowed up when the database for this website crashed. (I’m kind of glad that post is gone, because I was feeling guilty about praising Microsoft, anyway.)
Anyhoo, I’ve decided to return the favor by kicking some helpful knowledge for y’all. When I finished installing the new computers, I then was confronted with the problem of what to do with the 14 old computers they had replaced. It was decided that our agency would give the older computers to the families of our neediest students (amazingly enough, despite the large percentage of families who come to us with nothing but the clothes on their backs, many of them have their own computers.) But this raised a new set issues, namely: what software would be on these computers? I would have to erase all the expensive and/or proprietary titles (ie Windows XP, Office, subscription-based filtering and antivirus software). What would replace them?
That’s when, via a tip from my favorite free software website, I checked out The Open CD. Basically, what these folks have done is bundle together all the best freeware and shareware programs (Open Office, Firefox, Thunderbird, Gimp, PDFCreator, 7-Zip, etc) together on one cd. (You can also download each of these programs separately for free, but having them all in one place is more convenient.) You can download the entire cd image from their site and burn it on a disk, or have them send it to you via smail mail. I installed Windows 2000 on the old computers, loaded them up with titles from the Open CD, added a free antivirus suite, and they were ready to go. (For the Windows-phobic among you, there’s a bootable version of Linux, called Ubuntu, included on the cd.)
See? I’ve just told you how to completely outfit a computer with software, for free. I am very, very helpful. You’re welcome.
