New Computer Prize Draws computing Fans To Raffle

Being that times are a bit tough, it's proving increasingly difficult to meet the challenges of the Christmas Season for The HeliOS Project. As you may know, The HeliOS Project builds and gives Linux computers to disadvantaged or exceptionally promising students. Their new non profit application has been submitted and Directors have been recently named.

Welcome to the first annual HeliOS Project Christmas Raffle. We have found that people are most inclined to support an effort when we do things like this. What a great way to support a project that both aids the Linux Community and the greater community as a whole.

To date this year, we have built and placed 315 Linux computers with kids that normally would not have been able to afford a computer for their school work. Add this effort to our Linux Labs and you have a well-rounded effort that benefits everyone. Our HeliOS Project has inspired others to do the same thing in other communities and we're proud to help them any way we can.

So, what are the goodies for this year's drawing? Let's take a look.

Grand Prize

A Compaq SR5505F with Lightscribe burner and a 64 bit dual core AMD 2.2 gigger that drives the machine. It comes with one gig of ram and as you can see, it ain't too rough on the eyes. It houses a 160 gig hard drive which isn't too shabby since most of these come with half that storage. But the best part isn't what comes with the computer.

You get the privilege of utterly destroying the uber-virus known as Windows Vista (home Edition wouldn't you know...those cheap so-and-so's)

However, we do have folks entering the drawing that are not particularly Linux fans. You are more than welcome to leave Vista on there...we don't know why you would but hey...we aren't here to judge, we're here to raise money for our kids. We will be happy to include a live linux cd for your use though...it's our pleasure.

Here are the complete specs on this machine if you want to give them a look. Scroll down about 1/3 of the page to see them. Not too bad for a "low end machine".


Second Place Prize

You can't have too many dvd/cd rom/burners in and on your computer, but you often have one too few. The lucky second place winner of this raffle will receive a Sony DRX-720UL for their troubles, or their ten bucks. Now this IS a refurbished device but I've personally used it to make sure it works and to be honest, it's hard to let go...it is a sweet drive. Fast, sure and produces few if any coasters. I personally like this drive as much as I like the Compaq.

One disclaimer...the picture shows a side mounting stand and that isn't part of this package. I never quite trusted a cd burning device on its side anyway...it just ain't right...kind of like hot fudge on a hot dog.




Third Place Prizes

So as to give more people a chance to win, we are going to initially offer 11 third place prizes. Five of those third place prizes will be a 4 gig thumb drive with a professionally-pressed Mandriva 2009 disk included. This way, you can make thumb drive systems for your pocket or purse and impress your friends with your own portable Linux system. Your technical prowess will stun them into silence, as will the beauty of this Operating System. Making this portable thumb drive has become so easy even I can do it. Mandriva has made it just that easy.

But wait, there's more. Uh, let's see...Eleven minus five equals...uh. eleven fingers showing, drop five of them down....Ok, I got it...

6 Other third place winners will receive an Autographed Copy of Carla Schroeder's fantastic Networking Bible, The Linux Networking Cookbook. Look, I'm a slobbering networking idiot and Carla's book goes on every service call I make. YOU may know I'm networking dummy, but our customers don't...This is a fantastic book that can make even the dimmest of networking bulbs shine brightly. Many thanks to Carla for making this book available.

Entry for the first Annual HeliOS Project Christmas Raffle is 10 dollars. You can enter as many times as you like but you must reside in the US to receive the prizes due to the prohibitive price of shipping overseas and possible technology restrictions to some countries. The rules on shipping certain technologies in both AMD and Intel chips is cloudy at best and we are choosing to hesitate on the side of safety...being a non profit changes the way you look at everything. It is extremely easy to lose non profit status and we have fought too hard to gain ours. Our sincere apologies for this...trust me, it hurts us by not being able to include everyone; financially and other wise.

Directors of The HeliOS Project and their families are not eligible for this drawing.

If you know someone or maybe a Linux-based company that would like to add to our prize list, please contact me at helios at fixedbylinux dott kom. We will contact them immediately to make the arrangements. Any company who donates products for prize offerings will receive a year of banners on Blog of helios and a link in the HeliOS Solutions Store at no cost.

This is obviously for a great cause and we've worked hard to get these computers in the right hands. With your help, we will be able to meet the crushing requests we've received for this holiday season. Hey, ten bucks for a chance at a new computer? Not bad.

You can enter for the drawing by clicking the donate button at the top left of this page. All 10 dollar donations will be processed with the unique transaction number and that number will be emailed to you. The Drawing will be on the 20th of December, time to be announced. Hopefully, this will be a short web cast event and we may even have a Linux celebrity do the drawing for us.

All-righty Then