Nov 24, 2007

Some of our site is lost several updates made before the summer leave of our program have been misplaced on line. It looks to be that I uploaded an old version of the web site.  Rather than spend time digging through the back-ups looking for a handful of updates to this page - I will just press on from here.

Fire!!!  -  We had a fire in our storage building - All the computers and monitors were lost.  However, we have collected some new systems and had a few in volunteers homes being set up so while this may slow us down a little it does not bring us to a stop.  The real problem is the loss of the storage building - We can no longer store large numbers of systems This will make accepting large donations impossible for the present time.

Coming soon - a black and white lists for Web sites and web based games - the sites to be listed on the black list will display problems when using Firefox and/or Linux - Alternative sites will be listed.  The White list will be sites that have greatly improved performance on platforms or have fixed problems that caused us to place them on the black list.

Feb 12, 2007

It has come to our attention that installation repositories for SuSE 10.1 and 10.0 at the OpenSuSE web site have been moved and that often they are not working well or are very slow to down load new software requested.  For this reason We are posting new repositories that you may use to get additional software from....

SuSE 10.1

     ftp://mirror.colorado.edu/pub/opensuse/distribution/SL-10.1
or
     ftp://mirrors.kernel.org/opensuse/distribution/SL-10.1/inst-source

SuSE 10.0

    ftp://mirror.colorado.edu/pub/opensuse/distribution/SL-10.0-OSS/inst-source

You may copy and paste one of these into Yast install sources - be sure to use the correct version for your system.
Feb 3, 2007

We are now moving to SuSE 10.2 for our Client computers.  We have received a gift of several ink jet printers - so for the next few weeks we will be able to give out a printer with the computers.

Dec.  6, 2006

We have completed our test on Ubuntu and Kubuntu. While these are very nice distros of Linux we have decided that for a non-tech user Open SuSE is still the best choice. In reality it was Yast the won the day for SuSE. For the average user who does not know much about maintenance of their computer - Yast with its combining nearly all of the system maintenance and set up functions in a single logical front end with a lot of continuous on screen help proved to be useful were as bunch of Icons stuck in a directory was for them useless and confusing. One example of this was the set up of a dial up hardware modem. On SuSE this is done through Yast - with on screen help - all the testers were able to do it without outside help beyond the letter from the ISP giving them the phone number, login name and password.  Yet on Ubuntu these same people could not even find where to start the process.  What we found is that long menus of maintenance tools means nothing to the average end user and that having a "single program" that does it all, allowed the end users to do most of their own maintenance mostly because they could find the spot to start the process and had the basic information on how to do it right there on the screen.  Yast may be looked down apon by Linux Gurus, power users and even by Novell - yet for the average joe - it is a must have.  

Nov. 18, 2006

We have added some game links to Yahoo that work on you computers.  Remember these are the same games found on MSN.COM that do not work so use Yahoo for these games.  You will need to click on the button for the ONLINE version. All download versions work only on Windows and cost money to continue to play after the first few trial plays are done.

Nov 6, 2006

New items added to Client Support.  We found a web site that converts many files types to other file types - File Conversions up to 100mb are free.  The one draw back is that the files are emailed to you after conversion - so if your service has smaller limits on email size that will be your limit not the 100mb stated.

While on the subject of Email I  have have started using AOL email.  AOL offers email accounts with 2gb storage and is IMAP complaint and its free!!  I have found many wonderful features when using IMAP systems with Thunderbird Email Client (one of your included programs on your client computers).  For more information please go to our Client Support page.

Coming soon -  complete instructions and aids to setting your computer to download new software from all over the web.

We have found a program that may cause problems with your computer!!  Most systems have a game loaded that is called "Battle of Survival".  Under the right circumstances (in reality the wrong circumstances) this game will crash - and will leave the user log in it was running - with the key board turned off. If you want to play this game - be careful - best solution is to go into Yast and make a special user just for playing this game.

Sept 12, 2006

It's official -  The give-away is starting up again.
We will be doing the first one at Highland Tech High School on Northernlights Drive next Friday.  
Remember that only qualified persons may receive a free computer - If you think you can qualify then please make a request through either our email address computers@computers4all.org  or call Roger at 258-5205 to start the process.
If you know someone that can qualify then have them contact Computers For All.

Also an update on the ALKY project --  they are now showing some screen shots of a Windows game on a Debian system. (Debian is an another distro of Linux and most things that work on it will also work on SuSE with out problems.)

One more item of interest -  We are now testing both  Kubuntu Linux and Freespire Linux against SuSE to determine which is best for future use by CFA.  
 
Aug 22 2006

Hot - Just in - we have an agreement that will permit us to use Highland Tech High School again this year to do our give-away program.
  
Coming soon -  Classes in computer usage.  These classes will be open to anyone wishing to attend.

July 20 2006      -     Updated  Oct 12, 2006

Here is a small rant by our president, give it a read.

Coming soon -- A blog.  We are now working on adding a blog page.

June 19 2006  

We here at CFA are pleased to announce that the Market links are now active for a few on-line merchants. More will be following soon. When you use one of these links to connect to an on-line merchant they will pay us a small amount (typically from 1% to 5%). This is the sum they pay to any website that links you to them – this is their advertising budget. This amount is figured into the price of the items sold – and if we don't get it someone else will. Using these links will cost you nothing and help CFA greatly – so please use them when making purchases from these merchants.

We have added new entries to the Client Support Page. We have added a short list of some programs installed on Client Computers. We has also added links to Linux Documentation Project and to LinuxHelp.net a great site for the new Linux user.

June 16 2006

The ALKY Project is a new idea in getting Windows programs to run under Linux and on the new Macs. It is still in its early stages but already shows promise. This project if successful will probably allow Windows programs to run noticeably faster under Linux than under Windows XP. Here's a link to the ALKY website. This one is worth keeping an eye on.

June 8 2006
I have been reading about the $100.00 Laptop and the one computer per child (worldwide) drive.
Here is a link for more information Working Model of $100 Laptop Steals MITX Spotlight
The interesting point in this story is that MIT came to the same conclusion as we here at CFA did when it comes to the Operating System for low cost computers. They chose Linux as well.
June 1 2006
This as been a good first year for CFA

We have managed to give out just about 100 computers and have in hand about 25 more computers.

Highland Tech High School has been a real help once we worked through the early problems that so often crop up in new ventures. In the end we were able to give out computers through their efforts and the students received some valuable lessons in life. However, the school year is coming to an end so we must once again do this without student help through the summer.