By Ero Gray - This is one post in a continuing series aimed at nonprofit organizations with limited access to IT staff. The advice and opinions here will tend to be most useful to small and startup nonprofits, which often need to make IT decisions and accomplish IT tasks despite not having qualified folks to help. It should be assumed that all suggestions here are my attempt to recommend the simplest/easiest/most effective options for most offices. Your office may be quite different (or it may not even be an office). Also, as I'll frequently note, IT staff are necessary for any organization to function for long.
Last week's intro to the series can be read here:
http://www.crenyc.org/_blog/News_and_Views/post/IT_without_IT/
Let's start this series by talking about computers.
I'm going to upset a lot of people by ignoring everything except Windows PCs. I absolutely recommend Macs for personal use. You pay more but you get real quality. They're very rarely found in nonprofit offices however. Unfortunately if you're using Macs most of my advice will be useless to you... but then again, you'll need less advice in the first place, so I don't feel too bad. Linux doesn't really have a nontechnical user base at all yet. So I'll basically be assuming for this series of blog posts that everyone's using Windows, because that's what I've seen in use. Personally, I hope to see a general move away from Windows, but I don't think the time has come quite yet and this isn't really the place to push for it.
About choosing computers: the actual machines on the market continually get faster and more powerful, while what we do with them stays the same.The problem is that newer software is less efficient. So each year's computer is more powerful in theory, and about the same in practice, and costs about the same as always. This is pretty much an industry-wide scam of epic proportions but there's not a whole lot we can do about it.
What we can do, as nonprofits and consumers, is to step off the treadmill and make the most of being (a little bit) behind the times. We can use last-year's model, and save money, and our computers will work just fine. I'm going to go out on a limb and name a ballpark price: you really don't ever need to spend more than $800 for a desktop PC (including a decent flat-screen monitor), or for a quality laptop. (A half-hour ago I purchased an excellent laptop for one of our consultants, at a total price (including carrying case) of under $600). Quality PCs can be had for under $500, though I tend to aim a bit higher for better quality. Netbooks (low-powered laptops made for web use) can run as low as $300, and be reasonably functional (but tiny, which means small screens and small keyboards). The lowest prices will almost always be online, at manufacturer websites or reputable web retailers. Google is always your friend: it is easy to compare prices online.
Laptops are more expensive than equivalent desktop PCs, and they age poorly. Screens crack, hard drives fail, batteries stop charging. For this reason most budget-conscious nonprofits gravitate toward desktop PCs. But for a lot of mobile users laptops are an important tool. There are really no shortcuts here to picking what's good: consider RAM (more about this next week), overall weight (even light ones get heavy after a block or two), screen size (directly correlated to weight), and build quality/workmanship. I recommend reading reviews online, especially at a reputable website like CNET. A lot of what you'll find online if you google a product, will be reprinted manufacturer press releases, or uninformed-consumer reviews by cranky folks with axes to grind. Take everything you read with a grain of salt, but skimming many sources can often give you a good idea of the product's value.
For folks really short on funds, allow me to introduce one of the greatest tech resources available for nonprofits: Techsoup, a great organization serving technology needs for the sector. TechSoup offers donated software and hardware for sale at ridiculously low prices; it's possible at the moment to purchase several quite serviceable PCs via TechSoup for just under $200 apiece. You can also buy from the terrific Bronx nonprofit Per Scholas, who recycle, refurbish and resell computers while training youth: their basic workstation package at the moment is $225, and laptops are $300. These computers won't make your staff feel high-tech. They will however allow you to work on office documents and use email, which is almost always all you need.
More about Choosing and Acquiring Computers next week.
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