On Jul 28, 2016 1:48 PM, "Steve Petrie, P.Eng. via talk" <talk@gtalug.org> wrote: <snip>
Just curious -- did you build those "couple of hundred builds" all for personal use?
No, probably the first 50 in the early 90's were all DOS & WIN 8088 - 80486 from obsoleted IBM business units. Pick and patch so to speak. Some for me some for friends and friend of friends. Later on after 95, the next 50 or so, after taking a little training in systems integration and being exposed to Novel networking and I started tinkering with Linux. The last MS OS I used personally was 98. I've participated in community builds at various locations, you know build a box for someone who can't afford one. Some of those were Linux specific. Clue and mini-deb come to mind. I volunteered at a community organization and did some DOS & Win training for people who were going to receive a donated computer. I organized fake builds. That is I assembled and tested the box, disassembled it put all the parts in a box and a team of volunteers or staff would assemble it as a team building event. This century I have assembled gamers, business and dual boot systems on specification for people.
I've learned to plan for my own fumbling fingers and trying to mix and match from different supply streams.
It's the "fumbling fingers" and "mix and match" that makes me inclined to use a commercial builder.
I was just pointing out that some fasteners and screws etc can be quite tiny and if you don't have access to an immediate replacement, things can grind to a halt.
However, I received (26 July 2016) a very disappointing quotation from NCIX. Hugely expensive, with substitutions (and omissions). So be assured, I am still open to building myself.
Just out of curiosity, do you mind if I ask what dollar amount hugely expensive represents? While the business model has changed to single purchase with full Windows integration, there are other options depending on the budget. An off the shelf white box, given the times, is most usually able to run Linux quite well. It is the bleeding edge, with the fastest newest chipsets, and largest capacites where stumbling blocks arise, as some of the others who respond to this thread have indicated. Russell Sent from mobile.