What can I do with this 'old laptop'?

[DougieFresh4U]

Going through things in storage today, I came across an old laptop I haven't seen in almost 10 years.
It's a "FUJITSU LIFEBOOK" B Series, with 128MB RAM and I think it's got a 2GB hardrive.
It fired up nicely and it has Windows 98 on it. Of course there is no cd rom. What could I possibly put on it and how. My guess would be using USB of some sort. Maybe I should just chuck it out. It also has the touch screen and the 'needle' that works it.

[swoll1980]

Going through things in storage today, I came across an old laptop I haven't seen in almost 10 years.
It's a "FUJITSU LIFEBOOK" B Series, with 128MB RAM and I think it's got a 2GB hardrive.
It fired up nicely and it has Windows 98 on it. Of course there is no cd rom. What could I possibly put on it and how. My guess would be using USB of some sort. Maybe I should just chuck it out. It also has the touch screen and the 'needle' that works it.

I'm sure it can't boot from usb. Does it have a floppy drive? If so toss some tiny Linux distro on there, and use it as a giant mp3 player

[eli_d]

you should check the BIOS to see if it'll even let you boot from USB devices. a bunch of PCs that old won't support that... but... if it does, I think the easiest thing to do would be to use a USB cd drive to wipe the drive and install ubuntu or another distro. You could also do something like Damn Small Linux on a thumb drive, if it does boot usb.

if that's not possible, it's pretty easy (but maybe more involved than you'd like) to pull the HD and (using an adapter) put it in your desktop pc to set things up.

Either way, a pc like that would be nice to use as a stripped down internet "reference" pc. If it's got wifi or you can add it through the pcmcia, even better. I'm taking a pc like that & putting it in the garage so i can reference technical documents while i work on stuff. you could even use it for this purpose just with 98.

other ideas? sell it on ebay or just put a sign on it that says "free to good home" and strategically place it in the entry of a library or somewhere near a middle school / high school. or just ask around. someone who isn't a gamer will want it.

[sujoy]

put in DSL and use it for anything. ;)
make it a firewall, torrent slave (with network storage), control MPD from it, if you have a in-house database, then use this one to connect to it and then check you data from here (read-only access) like contact numbers etc. put it in as the kitchen lappy to watch videos while you cook ... the list goes on, limited only by your imagination ...

[dbbolton]

Can it boot from network?

[DougieFresh4U]

I'm sure it can't boot from usb. Does it have a floppy drive? If so toss some tiny Linux distro on there, and use it as a giant mp3 player
I plugged my ipod in and it detected it under 'Device Manager' but no driver


Can it boot from network?

I poking around in the BIOS settings and I saw where it said 'Boot from Network Server' able or disable. Not sure what 'boot from network' means.
It's pretty quick, but then there isn't any thing on there other than just the basic 98SE. Yes it does have floppy drive A, ethernet connect and I thought I saw some thing about wifi, but it's to old for that wouldn't it be?
Thanks for suggestions and replies.

[ugm6hr]

Maybe I should just chuck it out.

If it works, that would be a shame.

People will break down your door if you out it on freecycle.

If you connected an external HD, it would serve as a Media Server with mediatomb if you wanted one. Else, it is a perfectly respectable web surfing laptop (and will run AbiWord too for a school user).

I donated a much older machine to a home-schooled child (purely for internet access).

Debian still has a floppy installer option, I think, if it doesn't boot from CD.

[Mehall]

If it works, that would be a shame.

People will break down your door if you out it on freecycle.

If you connected an external HD, it would serve as a Media Server with mediatomb if you wanted one. Else, it is a perfectly respectable web surfing laptop (and will run AbiWord too for a school user).

I donated a much older machine to a home-schooled child (purely for internet access).

Debian still has a floppy installer option, I think, if it doesn't boot from CD.

Lenny's big enough that you require a few floppies, but yes, there is the option.

[mips]

It's a "FUJITSU LIFEBOOK" B Series, with 128MB RAM and I think it's got a 2GB hardrive.


Could you please post the model number here, you should be able to find it on the underside of the laptop.

Thing is Fujitsu made many different model B Series lifebooks over the years, the more info we have the better.

[dbbolton]

I plugged my ipod in and it detected it under 'Device Manager' but no driver



I poking around in the BIOS settings and I saw where it said 'Boot from Network Server' able or disable. Not sure what 'boot from network' means.
It's pretty quick, but then there isn't any thing on there other than just the basic 98SE. Yes it does have floppy drive A, ethernet connect and I thought I saw some thing about wifi, but it's to old for that wouldn't it be?
Thanks for suggestions and replies.
It means just what it sounds like. If you have another computer on your local network, you can boot your laptop via that other computer and install (for example) Ubuntu: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/LocalNet

There are other alternate installation methods outlined here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation

[stalkingwolf]

Puppy has a floppy boot disk. you might also get a pcmcia cd to work.
I have done the remove the HD and plug it into another laptop thing also.

[smartboyathome]

You can use an LVM partition spread across the HDD and USB drive to give you the ability to have more space. Or, you can use it as a cheap server (if it has an Ethernet card). An alternative is to give it to your local electronics recycler. Perhaps someone can use some of the parts it provides.