[talk] Hardware fundraiser

[George Rosamond]

Brian Callahan:
> 
> On 09/08/18 09:44, Mark Saad wrote:
>> All
>>   We donated a bunch of networking gear to the FreeBSD project this
>> summer.  Scroll all the way down.
>> https://www.freebsd.org/donations/donors.html
>>
>> We also sent OpenBSD similar cards and a hand full of optics .
>>
>> Point is I wanted to see if we should have a hardware fundraiser of
>> sorts .
>>
>> We could ping the projects for wants and needs and see if anyone on
>> the list can provide access to the hardware or donate it .
>>
>> So what do you all think ?
>>
> 
> I think this is a great idea. Can I plug a need of my own here for a
> quick second? If anyone has a working, OpenBSD-supported hppa machine
> they're looking to get rid of, let me know. I'll take any one as long as
> it works and is supported by OpenBSD. I've had a number of port
> upstreams suddenly interested in improving PA-RISC support.

A few things on this:

We have done this before sporadically over the years, mostly individual
NYC people to individual BSD devs.  Sometimes it's ordering something
via Ebay and shipping it overseas, sometimes it's some left over
production hardware.

I actually sent the late mickey@ an old sparc64 box (IIRC) that he
ordered via ebay about ten years ago, which saved a lot of costs and a
bunch of headaches...

To get this moving, I think it's best to start local.  It *feels* better
to do it for far-off devs, but we have enough devs in and around NYC
from all the projects, and we eliminate shipping hassles.

Enough people on this list work in production environments where old
hardware is frequently being EOL'd which is a good source.

The BSD 'donations wanted' lists tend to be dated.. so not sure if
they're the best guide.  Pinging people 'in the know' about
porting/testing efforts might be a good start.  Christos of NetBSD in
NYC is one good start...

g