Re: [MLUG] computers for Ecuadorian family

[Mark Rages <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On 11/15/05, Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED> wrote:
> (1) The computers will be respectable, current machines,
> (2) they won't cost too much money, and
> (3) shipping costs will be kept to a minimum.
>
> I will be going to Ecuador one of these days and I think I'll bring parts
> with me and assemble the machines there (probably 4 or 5 of them).  I'm
> hoping that I can buy main boards, drives and such here, but buy the cases
> and monitors in Quito.  I think I can fit the parts into a carry-on bag
> and thereby avoid any S/H costs.
>
> Any thoughts on that plan?

Check out local prices first.  It may be that S/H is factored into the
local monitor/case prices already.  Looks like Equador has the same
power as the US: http://kropla.com/electric2.htm

> The next issue is software.  I would love for them to run Linux or a dual
> boot system.  Everything has to be in Spanish.  Do all Linux OSs allow for
> Spanish language installations?  Same for Windows XP?

I set up Linux for a Korean friend.  He didn't speak much English, so
I chose the Korean language.  Now I don't speak Korean, although I can
read it phonetically (it's a simple alphabet).  He doesn't know Linux
either, so the support situation is interesting:

Me:  "What does that dialog say?"
Him: "Something not found"
Me: "D'oh! Why didn't I set this up in English!"

> If I could set them up with Linux only, they might not be happy.  Any
> views on this?  I think some of them would be fine -- email, web, word
> processing -- but the users who want to get into downloading photos from a
> digital camera or doing video editing might have some trouble.  What do
> you think?

Both those things work fine.  Modern desktop distributions will pop up
the appropriate dialog when you plug the camera in.  And Kino works
fine for simple video editing.

Linux has abundant, free, multilingual documentation online.  The same
may not be true for pirated Windows software, which is what I'm
guesing it will be compared to.

> Thanks in advance for any thoughts you can share.  I'm not sure when I'll
> actually do this, maybe this summer, but I wanted to start planning now.

Good luck!  If you have to ship anything by ground, better mail it
soon so it arrives before you do.

Regards,
Mark
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