[talk] Hardware fundraiser

[Brian Callahan]

On 09/08/18 12:15, George Rosamond wrote:
>
> 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...
>

This is really me thinking aloud more than anything, but would it be 
worth it to have a "things we've donated" page on the nycbug website? 
Not to brag about it, but to serve as a general reminder that this is 
one of the things nycbug can facilitate for developers, and remind 
people that they can donate hardware to devs. Something with like a note 
at the end that says "If you have hardware to donate, please email the 
talk@ list at any time with a general query." or something like that? Or 
even a "local developers: if you have a hardware need please ping talk@ 
(or admin@?)" or something like that. I know I for one always have 
hardware needs and I never think to ask. I'm sure I'm not the only one 
in that boat...

~Brian