[Linux] FreeGeek or ByteWorks in South FL?

[Robert Citek]

Terry Richards wrote:
> i never got any service calls. i showed them how to shutdown the machine
> and where the games were and that is about it.

But Adam does raise a very good point about providing support.  It's all
well and good to give folks free computers with Linux.  But we are
probably doing them a disservice if they have no one to turn to when
they get into a bind.  If the family you (Terry) helped ran into
problems, they would probably call you.  You are their help desk.  But
what if a few of us got together and wanted to build refurbished
computers and give them to many more people, say a hundred.  Who can
those new Linux users turn to?  I doubt any one of us could support 100
people on our own without some reasonable compensation.  Which brings us
to the challenge: is there a sensible way for a small group of people
(<10) to support a hundred Linux newbies?

Just throwing out some models:

- paid support (e.g. Red Hat)
- community support (e.g. LUG mailing list)
- combination of community and paid support (e.g. Linspire)

Given the target audience, those that could not afford a computer, are
these models even appropriate?  That is, would we need to come up with
more creative models?

Regards,
- Robert