Here's the scenario. City hall in my parent's city has been using the same computers since 2002. I am independently contracted by them for maintenance and general technical support. They're very satisfied with the help and options i provide. They also really love me since they never need the same problem fixed twice because i like to teach preventative measures to keep a problem from happening again.
But, the new problem is that they're using computers from 2002 still. They don't do that hardware intensive of computer tasks which is cool, hence they haven't needed to upgrade. But, the ugly has reared it's head in this scenario.
1. It's an XP/win2k environment. I want to get everyone on windows 7 which is an OS i can successfully run everybody from standard user accounts, and then they tap into a password protected admin account via UAC whenever admin privileges is required. This'll make virus scans a once a week afair for them, and mostly so none of the staff plug in like a usb drive and transfer an infected file to god knows what computer elsewhere and gets it infected (and also it'll keep viruses at bay completely for infecting system files because of the reduced permissions). Not to mention, this is a commercial environment, and for the win2k computers, i cannot just go ahead and install a free to use firewall (yes there is comodo firewall, it's a pain in the ass to setup). Windows firewall does the job just fine, i don't want to have to maintain another utility for them. Several good reasons for them getting windows 7 (in particular they're getting the 64 bit home basic (they're computer environment is pretty simple, and they have never needed or ever will need the advanced utilities in something like XP professional edition or whatever the windows 7 equivalent of that is)). I'd soup them up with linux centered around familiarity, but they run too many windows specific programs that there would be no point.
2. The hardware is starting to show it's age. They need more memory, a 4gb minimum would be awesome. I used what they had and upped all computers to 1.5gb of memory, this has helped immensely, but they need more. The pentium 4 processor in all of these computers is an entirely different thing. Pentium 4 is still more than fast enough, but since it doesn't do 64 bit, it has to go (dual core would be nice too). The big alarming fact about all of these computers is that they have 8 year old hard drives, going on 9 years soon. No one wants to lose they're work because the hard drive just died one day like i'm expecting it too, but that they aren't despite how many times i tell them this.
I would like to get them custom built computers straight from me. But, this i'm feeling would be more expensive. However, they still do need dependable non proprietary hardware (non proprietary motherboards, etc, last longer and can be replaced and modified by me). This is going to cost an extra pretty penny, but oh well. I don't want them with cheap dell hardware again which has failed them twice so far with those classic dell clamshell p4 machines in earlier years. Dell is out of the question, they can suck my ball sack.
Good computers from a manufacturer with non proprietary hardware of at least dual core processor and 4gb of memory with win7 64 bit home basic (or whatever it's called). I need some suggestions since i'm not so knowledgeable about big computer manufacturers aside from my excising of the dell choice (otherwise i'd order 4 dell vostro desktops, but no to that).
I want to have a proposal for them (ultimately it will be what they will end up doing). Yes this does mean a lot of money for me, but hey, i already have an excellent reputation with them.
In the mean time i am checking prices for doing home built systems, i expect it'll either be the same price as a computer from a manufacturer or cheaper, or the reverse.
