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View Full Version : ever gotten a free computer?



mamamia88
June 22nd, 2009, 12:59 AM
i put an advertisment on craigslist saying i would take an old computer off peoples hands to experiment with xubuntu and i've gotten a few replies so far just wondering if you have ever done anything like this?

BslBryan
June 22nd, 2009, 01:02 AM
I actually have. I received a Dell Optiplex Gxi with Compaq monitor (built-in mic) and HP Deskjet 712C printer. It's certainly not great, but it was still nice to get for tinkering purposes.

It was very nice of them to give it to me.

Daisuke_Aramaki
June 22nd, 2009, 01:02 AM
i have no experience like yours. but i got four sparc machines free. they were about to be destroyed by a company in my neighborhood, so i asked them if i could take them, and they were more than happy.

Dark Aspect
June 22nd, 2009, 01:03 AM
i put an advertisment on craigslist saying i would take an old computer off peoples hands to experiment with xubuntu and i've gotten a few replies so far just wondering if you have ever done anything like this?

No, but its not a bad idea if someone is trying to rid of a computer, I should try it. I have, however, dug computers out of the trash :D

Sealbhach
June 22nd, 2009, 01:04 AM
No, it's a good idea though. A lot of people don't like throwing electronics away, they'd rather someone was making use of it, and I guess some people might be worried about the environmental regulations about disposing of computers so it would be a relief to them to just hand the thing over to somebody else.


.

mamamia88
June 22nd, 2009, 01:07 AM
yeah i already ordered a new lcd for my ps3 figured i might as well see if i can get an old machine running xubuntu halfway decent

HappyFeet
June 22nd, 2009, 01:09 AM
i put an advertisment on craigslist saying i would take an old computer off peoples hands to experiment with xubuntu and i've gotten a few replies so far just wondering if you have ever done anything like this?

You probably got the idea from me. ;) I've been using craigslist to do just that for over a year now. I've been given over 50 computers in that time, and have gotten some pretty nice ones. One was a Dell that was 2.8ghz - 1gb ram - 160gb HD. I promptly sold it for $170. (on craigslist) :D I've made over $3,000 just on computers people give me.

I also know a junk man who cleans out businesses and homes, and buy computers from him for $10-20 each. I bought a IBM Thinkpad for $20, and a real nice Sony Vaio desktop for $20. I don't need any of these, so I sell them. I'm happy.

Daisuke_Aramaki
June 22nd, 2009, 01:10 AM
Talking about trash, i found an external usb hard disk that i took home with me. i was shocked when i plugged it in. worked flawlessly, and i suddenly had 500 gigs at my disposal. I still haven't figured out why someone would have thrown it away.

I even put up a notice that i found one in the trash, and it was working perfectly fine, and so the owner can still get it from me. No one ever came!

ugm6hr
June 22nd, 2009, 01:18 AM
I have given away a couple on freecycle.

It appears that computers are very popular though, as long as they work. I struggled to give away a P2 with 48MB RAM a couple of years ago, but a P3 with 128MB was very popular.

Not as popular as the PS2 I gave away though...

Unfortunately, I've never had much luck receiving from freecycle though.

Sealbhach
June 22nd, 2009, 01:24 AM
Yep, looking on Ebay, old "spares and repairs" computers, especially Dell Latitudes C500/C600 and Toshiba Portege are really popular. Most of them are missing the hard drive and have only 128 MB of RAM at the most but they sell for about £70 to £80 on Ebay in the UK.

.

HappyFeet
June 22nd, 2009, 01:31 AM
Most of them are missing the hard drive and have only 128 MB of RAM at the most but they sell for about £70 to £80 on Ebay in the UK.


Unless things are normally very expensive in the UK, that seems a bit much for those. Most of the free ones I get are equal to that or better.

Cam42
June 22nd, 2009, 01:36 AM
I get a bunch of free computers/parts
I've gotten a Sun Workstation for free, a nice server (minus hard drives), an old HP e-pc, and a no-name PC without a harddrive, and one that a guy built that I am now re-building (I used some of the parts,and the PSU failed.) it for my Grandma

richg
June 22nd, 2009, 02:19 AM
Yes.

Rich

0per4t0r
June 22nd, 2009, 02:20 AM
Twice. Once in around 2001 or so, I got a crappy desktop with Windows 95 that a school was giving away, and my mom broke it. Then, around two or three years later, one of my dad's friends from work got an eMachines eMonster 550 with Windows 2000 on it, which is still in use today.

I-75
June 22nd, 2009, 03:03 AM
I once received a free Mac G-3 from my brother in law and it had OS 9. I managed to put Ubuntu 7.04 on it...then later installed OSX Tiger. I kept OSX Tiger on it because flash on a Linux PPC platform didn't work. Not a bad machine for free.

I have thrown out a few computers due to fried motherboards, power problems, some so low in speed it was not even worth using with Linux.

swoll1980
June 22nd, 2009, 03:22 AM
I got an old Compaq Celeron 733MHz 128MB RAM it's running win2k pro. I also received a HP notebook with a P4 3.0MHz HT 1GB RAM, but it has a broken screen, and no hard disc.

mamamia88
June 22nd, 2009, 03:24 AM
i just got this computer running windows me and has an ethernet jack which is all i really need to enjoy this computer going to attempt to run xubuntu later

evermooingcow
June 22nd, 2009, 03:45 AM
About two years ago I found a complete custom built PC in the trash:

Abit NF7
Athlon XP 3000+
512 MB RAM
Radeon 9800 Pro
40GB HDD
Some antec full tower case

I popped in another 512 RAM that I conveniently had sitting unused, modded it so its practically inaudible and its been my media PC since still running today.

MikeTheC
June 22nd, 2009, 04:37 AM
I lost all the hair on my head once.

geekygirl
June 22nd, 2009, 04:44 AM
MiketheC - was that before or after you got a free computer? :P

Personally I get given a free HP Elitebook 6930p with work - got a new one a couple of weeks ago, otherwise I got nothing :P

CJ Master
June 22nd, 2009, 05:08 AM
I got a free laptop. I was so excited, it was awesome!!

...It broke the next day.

aufan19
June 22nd, 2009, 06:00 AM
I've never gotten a free one, but someone I know mentioned that he is thinking about getting a new laptop to replace the one he has now. He might be willing to give it to me if he decides that he isn't going to use it anymore.

What would be even more awesome is if I could get enough free parts to put my own system together. I've been wanting to do that for awhile (I've never done it before) but I haven't gotten anywhere yet.

JT9161
June 22nd, 2009, 06:16 AM
Sorta. Free in that I did not pay for it, I got it through volunteer work at Portland FreeGeek

clonne4crw
June 22nd, 2009, 11:21 PM
I get a lot of old machines from family members.

donkyhotay
June 23rd, 2009, 12:47 AM
I get them from friends/family. Generally when I'm done I give them to a local company called freegeek (www.freegeek.org) that recycles/rebuilds old computers.

jonian_g
June 23rd, 2009, 12:51 AM
My first and last free pc was 386 (40 Mhz) with DOS. Back then it was good for games. After that, sadly, I had to pay for every pc I owned :(

cariboo
June 23rd, 2009, 01:41 AM
I just go another free computer and monitor this afternoon. It's a 450Mhz with 132MB ram, it also came with a Samsung 17" monitor. I am currently installing Hardy CLI using the mini iso. I intend on using it for an mp3 player.

MikeTheC
June 23rd, 2009, 02:40 AM
Here, let me show you photos from my recent brain surgery...

mamamia88
June 23rd, 2009, 02:41 AM
that is so cool i got a free one yesterday with a 500mhz processor and 256mb ram running puppy linux and does everything i need on the computer just wanted a desktop to browse the web in the basement and it suits my needs perfectly

JordyD
June 23rd, 2009, 04:09 AM
Yes, I'm using it right now. The only non-Free part of it would be the Flashplayer plugin for Firefox and some of the codecs.

SunnyRabbiera
June 23rd, 2009, 04:23 AM
I have, about a few years back.
It was a IBM Laptop with win2k, lasted me a while and it still works today.
Of course my husband uses it more then I do, it now uses Ubuntu Hardy and will probably soon use Xubuntu due to is small ram upgrade capacity (it can only take 1 GB of ram at max and its type of ram card is hard to find)

starcraft.man
June 23rd, 2009, 04:26 AM
In my dreams. Oh it was a sweet dream. I might add, the computer was powered by hamsters and whenever I would print, cute fluffy bunnies came out.

Then I woke up and realize I've always paid for them, damn!