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Ask HN: Advice for African school computer lab setup

2 points by psadri ↗ HN
A friend is volunteering to setup a computer lab in an African village. They have wifi but nothing else. What is your recommendation for hardware / software setup to optimize for that environment? Things to consider: cost, reliability, ease of use, remote maintanece. It'd be preferable to have an OS / software suite that is common in the work space so that the kids develop skills that are practical -- most likely MS and office suite. Would love to get your advice / experience.

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Diaznash
Hi. For starters, it would make more sense to be more specific which African country you are talking about. Your approach in Morocco would be totally different from let's say Kenya, where I am located. In Kenya, several schools have computer labs and they all run windows. Am yet to come across any other OS. For a fact, Linux has a better chance of working out too than MacOS. Any hardware is fine. Have in mind, this machines will be used by so many kids on a daily basis and therefore, durability is key. Good core i3 Dell desktops tend to be durable with good build quality. Heavy duty keyboards can be considered as well as old school wired mouse. 17 or 19 inch widescreen monitors will do. In regards to softwares, Microsoft is king here and therefore the office suite is perfect. You can also consider having a software that wipes everything from the computer at every reboot. What's the electricity situation in the location? Yeap! Frequent blackouts can be a setback. You can consider solar, with an inverter, for those times. In regards to charges, for outside members, billing can be done per minute...again, which country? Anyway, I hope that helps and good luck.