About the HeliOS Project and HeliOS Solutions
John Adam Garcia from Austin, Texas is happy with the computer he got from the HeliOS Project.
We began our web presence in 2003. Ken Starks, after discovering the Linux Operating System, realized the impact it could have on the everyday computer user. He began a website called Lobby4Linux—since then revamped as “Blog of helios”—and began advocating the Linux System to anyone who was interested.
In that effort, Ken realized that there were many school-aged kids that did not have computers at home. This posed a particular problem not only academically but socially as well. Ken spoke with two other military veterans/retirees and solicited their help in building computers for kids, which soon became Komputers4Kids and was later renamed as “The HeliOS Project”. With the help of Austin Texas Attorney Anthony Read, Ken is forming the HeliOS Project into a multifaceted organization and an official and government-recognized Non-Profit organization.
Ryan Foster is one of our dedicated volunteers. He holds a second job just to help finance the HeliOS Project.
Ken started the “Buckamonth” program to aid the HeliOS Project and other organizations in fund raising. The competition for charitable donations is fierce so the logic was simple. Make it easy and inexpensive for your customers and supporters to donate just a litte bit every month. That way, the charity, in this case, the HeliOS Project, has a steady stream of loyal donors who don't feel pushed to donate large amounts of money. If enough people support the effort, then the Buckamonth project will go a long way to support that effort
While funding was fairly successful via donations, it did not always fill the needs of the effort. It was then that Ken realized he could start a business installing Linux on people's computers who either did not feel confident in doing it themselves or simply did not have the time. In December of 2007, with the invaluable help of Sander Marechel from the Lone Wolves Foundation, the HeliOS Solutions website was build and published to the web as http://www.fixedbylinux.com.
HeliOS Solutions is now the primary funding effort for the HeliOS Project and shows promise in being used by anyone who wishes to do the same thing.