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Home » Community » Hardware, Networks, and Telecommunications » apple donations

apple donations

Posted by blehpunk

on 24 Jan 2006 4:50 PM

has anyone had any luck getting apple hardware donated? we need pretty decent systems, and im thinking about asking creative businesses for their leftovers, but im wondering if its even worth the effort.

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Posted by HelenSeal

on 27 Jan 2006 11:06 AM

The trouble with Apple hardware is that people hang on to it for ever because it keeps on working!

If you just need machines to run Office, a browser nad aybe a light accounting package, left overs from creative companies could work well for you - they tend to need to upgrade every two or three years. A three year old mac would be fine at the moment.

I think the issue would be timing - Creative comapnies usign Macs tend to be fairly small offices so your ask would have to come at just the right time. This could be a good time to be planning this as orgs start thinking about moving over en-mass to the intel chip machines.

Also if you can build enough of a relationship with the companies that they think about you when they're upgrading - they may also think of you when if they decide to do anything else philanthropic....

My own success with donated machines (Mac and Windows) has always been through personal contacts, or a third party refurbisher/matchmaker.

Helen

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Posted by Douggg

on 28 Jan 2006 8:46 AM

You should be able Apples and it will becomes even easier. With Apple using Intel chips, you can now run Windows on your Mac or Mac OS on your Windows computer. I've been running the beta of Apple's new OS on my Windows machine for 4-5 months.

It going to mater any more since Apple has defected to Intel.

Industry experts are predicting Apple will turn into an operating system company since their OS runs on Windows. Expect a flood of free hardware later this year with the release of Vista. All of this will most likely diminish Apple’s share of the computer market. Heck they make far more profit off the over priced iPOD then they do computer hardware so why sell it?

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Posted by gregbb

on 30 Jan 2006 5:28 PM

Here's another wrinkle: I've been personally volunteering with a tiny org to upgrade their 3 old OS 9 Macs to donated OS X G4s. Several observations:

People hang on to Macs for a looooong time. Even with changes in the current Apple OS underfoot, OS X machines will live a long time - given their *Nix OS interior.... But Douuugggg is right, high-end shops with extra cash may turn their machines over with this new OS change....

However, the icons may be pretty on those donated machines, but it's damn complicated under the hood, and I've been banging my heads for hours trying to get the Macs to talk to each other over the network - because of legacy tweaks on the system done by the previous owners (who evidently had these set up in a enterprise network environment). None of this was apparent when looking the Macs over - and in fact, the guy who gave them to us claimed they had been completely re-installed (apparently not from scratch....).

In the end, I hope to spend less than 20 hours converting the three machines (where it should have taken 9). But even if you paid a somewhat npo-friendly full-rate of $75/hr, this would turn out to be three almost new Macs for $1500. You just need to decide if "free" Macs that cost that much are worth it.

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Posted by joeforan

on 6 Feb 2006 12:18 PM

Although this was almost a decade ago, it is probably still as true today as it was then...

When I was a grunt-level tech for a small consulting firm in 1997, we did a lot of Apple business, having a number of school and small graphics / media companies under contract for support. To start me off in the Apple (right after I got my A+ in Windows/DOS, Hardware, and Mac... the last of which is no longer offered), I got the task of upgrading several Mac IIcx computers for a small client who had been using them faithfully since 1989.

The moral of the story - Macs live forever. They're reliable systems that work great and last a long time, and these days are excellent fashion statements too.

Anecdotes aside, I've tried to get Apple to donate hardware for some time, and it's been tough going. They apparently have no in-kind product donation offerings, and its up to the local Apple retailers.

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Posted by Douggg

on 6 Feb 2006 1:11 PM

"I've tried to get Apple to donate hardware for some time, and it's been tough going. They apparently have no in-kind product donation offerings, and its up to the local Apple retailers."

I worked on in-kind giving away $10M worth of products. I'm right now in the middle of a gifting program and have learned quite a bit. (Interesting the programs work.)

Apple, Microsoft, Dell, HP, Cisco get hit up for in-kind donations all the time. We use to be able to get returns or equipment used at events for free.

That ended because they found the out they were being taken advantage of. Non-profits and schools were selling the items and then buying other equipment. Not exactly in the spirit of the gift. They now take sledge hammers to the equipment to physically damage it so it can not be sold or used. Very sad.

This is not to say you can’t get items, but it’s who you know.

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Posted by clement

on 6 Feb 2006 1:35 PM

Easy there, Douggg. While I can concede the possibility that such cases of reselling exist in small, isolated numbers, I can hardly believe that these types of infractions took place on a scale that prompted some of the biggest computer manufacturers to halt their donation program altogether, as you appear to be implying. Most nonprofit are upstanding and responsible organizations and choose to be abide by the terms that govern the donations they receive. Unless you have overwhelming evidence and proof to your claim, please refrain from making such blanket accusations in the future.

Companies choose to promote or withdraw their donation programs for many different reasons, and often times it is simply a matter of economics - an internal analysis may show that it would ultimately cost the company less money to simply depreciate the equipment and write them off of the company's assets, than to set up some sort of donation program and arrange for the logistics of giving them away, the act of which may also incur additional legal liability for the company should something goes wrong. I am sure that's not the only reason, just one that I can think of and have encountered before. But then again, I'm not claiming to be an expert on this subject.

Clement

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Posted by ARCARC

on 1 Mar 2006 10:12 AM

With Apple using Intel chips, you can now run Windows on your Mac or Mac OS on your Windows computer. I've been running the beta of Apple's new OS on my Windows machine for 4-5 months.

Absolutely untrue. To date, no-one has successfully loaded and booted Windows on an Intel-based Apple Mac. While Apple has said that it doesn't care if users load Windows on their machines, there are a number of obstacles to overcome before this could even be a remote possibility.

Regarding running OS X on any generic PC, this is also not true. Apple has never announced plans to make OS X available to people not using Apple's hardware. What is being referenced here is a hacked version of OS X that has had additional non-Apple code inserted to make it install on generic PCs with Intel motherboards. Without making a hack, which in itself makes the OS unstable, there is no way OS X will install on a generic PC.

Currently, there are several programs available (most notably, MicroSoft's Virtual PC) that emulate an Intel-based PC on Apple's G3/G4/G5 computers. This version of Virtual PC (7.0.2) will not run on the new Apple computers with Intel chips. Microsoft is expected to release (but has not announced) a new version of Virtual PC later this year that will run on the new Intel-based Apple computers - the performance of this new version of Virtual PC on Intel Macs is expected to be significantly improved because it no longer has to emulate an Intel motherboard when running on Intel-based Macs. However, this will still be a "virtual" Windows installation in that you will not be able to boot to Windows from an Intel Apple - rather Virtual PC will open and run Windows within Apple's OS X.

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Posted by glamontagne

on 1 Mar 2006 10:25 AM

Thanks for correcting the bad information in the prior post arcarc. Since I am not a Mac expert, I didn't want to dispute the misinformation that he gave.

Gary Network/Systems Admin Berlin, NH
Host Non-profit Tech Careers, Security Forums
Co-Host Networks, Hardware, & Telecommunications Forum

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Posted by joeforan

on 2 Mar 2006 6:40 AM

"Industry experts are predicting Apple will turn into an operating system company since their OS runs on Windows"

The first part sounds interesting Douggg - can you post a link to the article you got this from? I'd really love to read more about this trend, since I had never before heard it, and most press stories I see are so full of the success of iPod and iTunes that they scarcely mention OS X anymore (which is a shame considering how excellent an OS it is).

As to that second part... not to point out the glaringly obvious, but... no... their OS does not run on Windows. Windows is software. Intel procs, boards, and chipsets are hardware. Macs can run on those.

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Posted by Rog

on 4 Mar 2006 9:52 AM

their OS [Mac] does not run on Windows

the OSx86 project -- it runs on "Wintel" hardware, not "Windows.

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Posted by ajeab

on 7 Mar 2006 5:08 PM

try google "pear PC"

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Posted by joeforan

on 14 Mar 2006 7:29 AM

Apple OSes and SW still need Apple Hardware (unless you hack it, in which case it's not really Apple anymore) to run, regardless of whether it's emulated or native. You can't install OS X on Windows. Windows is software. I know this is getting into minutia, but PearPC doesn't make Apple's OS or SW run on Windows... it makes Apple SW run on emulated hardware-in-software, which is an application running on another operating system (ie, on Windows, Linux, BSD, etc.).

PearPC is cool as all get-out-though... :)

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