<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 11/15/05, <b class="gmail_sendername">Mike Miller</b> <<a href="mailto:mbmiller@taxa.epi.umn.edu">mbmiller@taxa.epi.umn.edu</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
My wife is from Quito, Ecuador, and her (far from wealthy) parents,<br>siblings and their kids still live there. We would like to buy computers<br>for them and I'm trying to come up with a good way to do this such that:<br>
<br>(1) The computers will be respectable, current machines,<br>(2) they won't cost too much money, and<br>(3) shipping costs will be kept to a minimum.<br><br>I will be going to Ecuador one of these days and I think I'll bring parts
<br>with me and assemble the machines there (probably 4 or 5 of them). I'm<br>hoping that I can buy main boards, drives and such here, but buy the cases<br>and monitors in Quito. I think I can fit the parts into a carry-on bag
<br>and thereby avoid any S/H costs.<br><br>Any thoughts on that plan?</blockquote><div><br>
Several years ago I did such a thing with a friend (a Ham, like me)in
Brazil. In the end, after paying duties and "fees" to expedite
movement thru customs, it would have been cheaper to buy the machines
in downtown Rio. Check with a local consular office before
you pack your bags. Often it will be easier and cheaper to bring
in a completed machine ... a laptop, for example, as part of your
personal effect and "luggage". You may need an "import
license" for the component parts that costs as much as the components
themselves ... and you haven't paid the duties, yet! NAFTA be
damned! </div><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">The next issue is software. I would love for them to run Linux or a dual
<br>boot system. Everything has to be in Spanish. Do all Linux OSs allow for<br>Spanish language installations? Same for Windows XP?</blockquote><div><br>
You'll do just fine with LINUX. Just make sure the the
internationalization files are intact ... the major distros have no
problem with this. </div><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">If I could set them up with Linux only, they might not be happy. Any
<br>views on this? I think some of them would be fine -- email, web, word<br>processing -- but the users who want to get into downloading photos from a<br>digital camera or doing video editing might have some trouble. What do
<br>you think?</blockquote><div><br>
I set up a machine for my 84 year old mother ... a first time computer
user. She never knew she had anything other than a "Windows"
machine until one of her friends asked her "what that KDE dealie is"
... she'd been using it for 3 years at the time.<br>
There is very little that Linux won't do these days. You may find
that there is more affordable local support in Quito for LINUX than for
Windows. Countries like Brazil now mandate the use of Linux in
government and schools. Ecuador may be the same </div><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">Thanks in advance for any thoughts you can share. I'm not sure when I'll
<br>actually do this, maybe this summer, but I wanted to start planning now.<br><br>Best,<br><br>Mike</blockquote><div><br>
Likewise, <br>
<br>
Harv </div><br>
</div><br>