Donated computer: Blessing or curse?

The nonprofit I volunteer at recently had a computer donated to it by one of the board members. While it is newer than the loaner we were using, it is far from new. While I really do appreciate the gesture, no one understood how bad of a situation this presented.

The computer had been wiped and had the OS re-installed from the OS disks. Everyone here knows how badly bloated the manufacturer OS's are. The office manager was so excited by something shiny(er) and new(er) that she immediately unplugged the old one and hooked up the new one. While she was forthright enough to copy over the user files from the old computer. That's all she did.

So the coordinator(my wife) comes in and nothing works. So, I stop by after work to take a look at it. At first glance, I knew something was off that I had seen before, but couldn't place my finger on it. So I start assessing. I see the usual: BS AOL, MSN, Office 2003 trial shortcuts, McAfee, Norton, and Kaspersky. Then it hits me, it has the subtly different XP SP2 GUI. I then continue on to find it has MS Works Suite installed and it is actually running XP Media Center Edition SP2. I clicked on the Office 2003 trial shortcut and it asked for a key, for the TRIAL.

All in all, this computer is totally unusable in it's current state. It needs at least 4 hours worth of work and few hundred dollars in software, just to be where the old is. Not to mention that is more than the computer is even worth. I don't mind donating my time and even letting them borrow my licenses until they can buy their own.

After all of this (in addition to commiseration) my question is: Does anyone know of good sources for cheap software for nonprofits? We are looking for Windows XP pro, Office, and Quickbooks. Open Office has been recommended but they would rather purchase a familiar program instead of learn the quirks of a new program. I know that in the past they have used Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Publisher and Frontpage. We could always have a fundraiser, but everyone agrees that seems like a lot of work, if we could just find everything for less than retail.

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Comments

demonfurbie

you could always buy the student versions seeing as you have a .edu email addy

swild

That's the cheapest thing I have come up with so far, but was hoping someone may have heard of a program for nonprofits. Educational licenses are not intended to be used by non-educational business entities. I would rather do it right if possible. We do rely on state, local, and federal funding and would want everything to be on the up and up.

Everyone

MS does non-profit pricing, super cheap too. Check cdwg.com, should be able to find non-profit pricing there.

cyberguypr

This may also help: Microsoft Non-Profit Non-Profit - Discounts for Non-Profit Organizations

whatthehell

Would TechNet legally be an option?

dustinmurphy

whatthehell wrote: »

Would TechNet legally be an option?

The licenses obtained by a Technet Subscription are for Dev / Testing use only. They are not licensed for production computers.

swild

I'm checking on cdwg.com. The other one has a minimum of 5 licenses.

Thanks, guys. If you see any more let me know.

demonfurbie

any chance you could image the old system to the new system?

dustinmurphy

demonfurbie wrote: »

any chance you could image the old system to the new system?

Or just use the software / keys from the old one to the new one (depending on HOW it's licensed)

swild

The old system was just being loaned to us, so we don't currently have any license keys. I know I will be able to get them to purchase Office, but they are thinking about purchasing a better computer capable of running Win 7. This one is showing 869MB of RAM, which would be more money we would need to spend. I think I can talk them into buying a refurbed PC for about the same price as getting this one usable since we can still use the monitor and peripherals. Might even be able to get Office included if we shop around a bit. Either way, cdwg.com has a great price on Office for us.

NewManSoon

If your organization does not have any Windows specific software requirements, install Ubuntu Linux or some other flavour.

swild

NewManSoon wrote: »

If your organization does not have any Windows specific software requirements, install Ubuntu Linux or some other flavour.

That's not the worst idea I've heard. I'll run it by them. That would indeed solve everything.