What to do with spare computer...

[kool_kat_os]

I have a spare computer laying around and I dont know what to do with it...

You guys have any ideas?

[Therion]

Not besides cannibalizing it for parts, recycling it or fixing it up and donating it to someone who might be able to use it.

Preloaded with Ubuntu of course.

[kool_kat_os]

Not besides cannibalizing it for parts, recycling it or fixing it up and donating it to someone who might be able to use it.

Preloaded with Ubuntu of course.

Sorry...I meant..."What can i do with a computer...and KEEP it at the same time" :-)

[oldsoundguy]

If you want to keep it for a backup .. toss Puppy or Linux Mint on it, boot it up, install BOINC and pick a couple of scientific projects you want to help and let it run (provided it has internet access)

If you don't want to do that, put the same OS units on it (either) and give it to a senior center. The center here in town has all kinds of problems with their Windows based computers and those things are in the shop more than they are sitting on a desk helping someone communicate with their great grand kids! Give them a bullet proof unit!! (you may have to place internet icons on the desktop, but that should be it!!)

[Dr Small]

It depends on your specific needs.


Use it for parts
Stick it between your modem and router as a firewall
Install Ubuntu Server on it


Use your imagination, or you can be lazy and read what others have written about this same subject:
http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2007/09/14/things-to-do-with-an-old-computer/

[init1]

You could send it to me :D

[FuturePilot]

Install Ubuntu server on it and set it up as a file server or something you can dump backups onto.

[namegame]

Personally, I use my old desktop to test Alpha/Beta releases of Linux distributions. Or I experiment with other, lesser known distributions.

Currently, I have MoonOS installed on it.

[TwiceOver]

Depends on the stats of the machine, but another vote for Ubuntu Server. My old Athlon XP 1800+ does the following:

Internet music streaming
Local web based player for in house radio station
File server
Webserver for photo album, and internal/external websites
TiVo Streaming Server
XBox 360 Streaming

Not bad for a 6 year old machine with only 512mb ram. Lots of hard drive space, but nothing extraordinary.

[bowens44]

I put windows xp on my spare computer and use it for the occassional game of Oblivion. I also use it for a file server.

[kk0sse54]

Check out this blog post http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2007/09/14/things-to-do-with-an-old-computer/ i love some of the ideas it gives

[oldsoundguy]

Old Apple monitors can be turned into desk top aquariums .. kits are available!! LOL

[stinger30au]

it depends how old the computer is at to what to keep it for


heres a few examples i have thought of


use it as a door stop

find another and use them as book ends

use it as a small chair for a small toddler/child

use it for a coffee table in the lounge room

use it as a step in the kitchen to get to the high cupboards

use it as a wheel chock when changing a flat tyre

use it as a boat anchor

tie it to your waist with rope and pull it behind you when going for a run to help build muscle strength and increase cardiovascular activity

seal up the edges with some sealastic and fill it with water and fish, just dont plug it in to the power thats all


use it to hold up the side of your bed incase you break it while using it to bench press with

leave it in the garden and use it as a statue

use it in the kitchen as a meat tenderizer

in sure others can think of more stuff:lolflag:

[oldsoundguy]

an FYI .. I took an old People PC with Toshiba MB unit .. 466 Celeron. Added memory (cheap on eBay) to bring it up to it's max of 512 .. put in a dual layer DVD burner and an 80gb hard drive.

I call it my "crash test dummy" ... test all sorts of systems and programs on it to see if they will crash. Works great for that purpose and occasionally I find a diamond in the rough such as Linux Mint for an OS.

[Frak]

an FYI .. I took an old People PC with Toshiba MB unit .. 466 Celeron. Added memory (cheap on eBay) to bring it up to it's max of 512 .. put in a dual layer DVD burner and an 80gb hard drive.

I call it my "crash test dummy" ... test all sorts of systems and programs on it to see if they will crash. Works great for that purpose and occasionally I find a diamond in the rough such as Linux Mint for an OS.
It's like putting 26" rims on your tricycle...

[Shippou]

What are the specs?

[Frak]

What are the specs?
3 - 4" wheels, Tyco edition w/ plastic studded rims.

[Dragonbite]

It depends on your specific needs.


Use it for parts
Stick it between your modem and router as a firewall
Install Ubuntu Server on it




I did #2 and added content filtering so when my kids go online their content is being filtered just in case they look up a site while I'm in the kitchen getting coffee or something (otherwise I like to see what they are doing and all).

I'm also setting up an Ubuntu Server for a file server so I can back things up, as well as a centralize common files.

If you already have a server (or Edubuntu) you could look at LTSP and set up the old computer as a thin client. I did that for a while (for the kids) but don't have enough room in the house to warrant more than one desktop, and the FPS for one game was too slow (don't know about other games, just this one)

[synthaxx]

I took a celeron 500 tablet pc (fujitsu stylistic c500) that i bought off ebay a long time ago, and stuck ubuntu server on it.

It runs an internal website, controls my lights via X10, samba, downloads all my torrents and newsgroup posts, starts and stops pc's for a weekly backup via etherwake, lets me checkup on my house via a webcam and provides me with unfiltered internet on "hostile networks" through ssh (and privoxy). All of this while consuming less than 15 watts of power. And since it's a "laptop" it has a built in UPS as well.
Oh yeah, it has a total of 128mb of ram...

Not only does it run, it runs well. And with an uptime of 425 days sofar i'm going to run it until it explodes.:lolflag:

So there's a lot you can do with an old pc and a ubuntu server cd. With everything running (apache,samba,2 torrents,hellanzb) i only just break 110mb's of memory usage.

[Daggo]

Turn it in to an Asterisk VoIP server - always fun and a great learning experience