Reuse of old computers with Linux
matthewb
Cheaper than buying a new computer.
Allows a computer to have a new second life.
Less e waste being created.
If your old PC has full or a broken hard drive.
Create a portable Linux installation with your own documents on a USB
memory stick.
Potentially retrieve files from a computer with a broken operating
system.
The power consumption may be lower than the modern trend of 500 Watt
power supplies in a PC.
I have created a How To page.
http://www.matthewb.id.au/computer/Reuse_Old_Computer_with_Linux.html
What do you think?
albu...@mailinator.com
> Why reuse an old computer?
>
> Cheaper than buying a new computer.
> Allows a computer to have a new second life.
> Less e waste being created.
> If your old PC has full or a broken hard drive.
> Create a portable Linux installation with your own documents on a USB
> memory stick.
> Potentially retrieve files from a computer with a broken operating
> system.
> The power consumption may be lower than the modern trend of 500 Watt
> power supplies in a PC.
>
>
I don't think much of the idea. Hard drives are dirt cheap right now.
If you have a broken one you'd have to replace it anyway. Why dink
around with Linux that won't run some of my software, peripherals and
script not written for it? Just back yourself up with a cloned drive
to begin with and the problem of a bad drive is fixed in five minutes,
no files lost. If you have two old computers, you can sinc them and do
the same thing.
The Real Bev
Movie and music server for your entertainment center (formerly known as hifi and
TV). As you say, hard drives are dirt cheap right now.
--
Cheers,
Bev
=================================================================
"There's an apocryphal (I hope not !) story about a Bristol bike
thief found cold, wet and bedraggled one morning, D locked by the
neck to a local bridge." -- Anon
matthewb
The goal of the document was to try Linux on a older computer to see
if can have a second life.
I assume most old computers are operational but not quick enough to
run Windows any more.
The process shows a non destructive way to try Linux on systems with
low hardware specifications.
If you are happy with Linux then keep running it off the Live CD or
Boot USB or install in on your hard drive.
The alternative is change an old computer to work with Windows + Anti
Virus suite + 100s of Windows security updates often means new
motherboard, processor, RAM & perhaps hard drive, power supply and
graphics card.
Linux has other uses such as computer technical support.
meow...@care2.com
> On Feb 22, 10:16 am, albun...@mailinator.com wrote:
> > On Feb 21, 2:52 pm, matthewb <matthew.bu...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The goal of the document was to try Linux on a older computer to see
> if can have a second life.
> I assume most old computers are operational but not quick enough to
> run Windows any more.
I've heard that many times, but it makes no sense to me at all. All
computers are exactly as fast as they were on day 1, unless they've
been upgraded or clocked. And win95, 98 etc havent changed any
either... so its inevitable that a fresh reinstall will run the same
speed it did originally.
As for security patches, you wouldnt use an old machine for sensitive
apps, so patching is optional. If you pick app software with care you
can get a system running far faster than it ever used to.
> The process shows a non destructive way to try Linux on systems with
> low hardware specifications.
> If you are happy with Linux then keep running it off the Live CD or
> Boot USB or install in on your hard drive.
> The alternative is change an old computer to work with Windows + Anti
> Virus suite + 100s of Windows security updates often means new
> motherboard, processor, RAM & perhaps hard drive, power supply and
> graphics card.
nonsense. Even my 486 still runs all that passably. Its just a matter
of setting up the software well
- AV on old machines, set real time scanning OFF, just rely on the
night time scan.
- pick apps with care, avoiding any bloat
- make sure no app starts at boot time unless it genuinely needs to.
Do that and you can get almost anything online, and at usable speed
too. Even a 486. Not that anyone would want to these days.
NT
SMS
> Why reuse an old computer?
>
> Cheaper than buying a new computer.
> Allows a computer to have a new second life.
> Less e waste being created.
> If your old PC has full or a broken hard drive.
> Create a portable Linux installation with your own documents on a USB
> memory stick.
Well Linux is free (if time has no value) but it's not true that an
obsolete computer is necessarily capable of running Linux very well.
Linux still needs a relatively fast CPU and sufficient disk space to run
applications like Open Office.
> Potentially retrieve files from a computer with a broken operating
> system.
Very true. I just did this for a friend a couple of weeks ago. She
thought her files were gone but I plugged her bad drive into a USB
enclosure, booted Linux, and retrieved all her files that were "missing"
when I booted Windows and tried to find the files on the bad drive.
> I have created a How To page.
> http://www.matthewb.id.au/computer/Reuse_Old_Computer_with_Linux.html
> What do you think?
The latest release of MEPIS Linux (based on the new Debian Lenny core)
is ideal for new users.
SMS
> I don't think much of the idea. Hard drives are dirt cheap right now.
> If you have a broken one you'd have to replace it anyway. Why dink
> around with Linux that won't run some of my software, peripherals and
> script not written for it? Just back yourself up with a cloned drive
> to begin with and the problem of a bad drive is fixed in five minutes,
> no files lost.
That's what I do now. Drives are so cheap that periodically cloning the
hard drive is the key to fast recovery when the a drive goes bad,
without days of re-installing the OS, applications, and data.
Gary Heston
<meow...@care2.com> wrote:
>matthewb wrote:
>> On Feb 22, 10:16 am, albun...@mailinator.com wrote:
>> > On Feb 21, 2:52 pm, matthewb <matthew.bu...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> The goal of the document was to try Linux on a older computer to see
>> if can have a second life.
>> I assume most old computers are operational but not quick enough to
>> run Windows any more.
>I've heard that many times, but it makes no sense to me at all. All
>computers are exactly as fast as they were on day 1, unless they've
>been upgraded or clocked. And win95, 98 etc havent changed any
>either... so its inevitable that a fresh reinstall will run the same
>speed it did originally.
I suspect the OP was referring to newer versions of Windows, like XP.
It's not exactly slim and trim compared to Win9x, whereas some distros
of Linux would be.
>As for security patches, you wouldnt use an old machine for sensitive
>apps, so patching is optional. If you pick app software with care you
>can get a system running far faster than it ever used to.
I.e., don't use Microsoft apps. Open Office is cleaner, and available
in Windows-compatible versions as well.
>> The process shows a non destructive way to try Linux on systems with
>> low hardware specifications.
>> If you are happy with Linux then keep running it off the Live CD or
>> Boot USB or install in on your hard drive.
>> The alternative is change an old computer to work with Windows + Anti
>> Virus suite + 100s of Windows security updates often means new
>> motherboard, processor, RAM & perhaps hard drive, power supply and
>> graphics card.
>nonsense. Even my 486 still runs all that passably. Its just a matter
>of setting up the software well
[ ... ]
Use of "setting up the software well" and Windows in the same sentence
is an oxymoron.
>Do that and you can get almost anything online, and at usable speed
>too. Even a 486. Not that anyone would want to these days.
I supplied someone with a 486DX2/66 system a few years ago; they had a
customer whose 75MHz Pentium server had died (motherboard failure) and
needed a replacement with sufficient ISA slots. They were still using
a 75-ohm coax network that was obselete before 1990 (and whose name
escapes me ATM) and had to have lots of slots for their 8-bit NICs.
The customer was told that rewriting their software to run on modern
hardware was an imperitive. Not sure if they ever did.
>NT
That's a fairly trim OS, even with SP6a installed. I had it running on
some small (<3GB) hard drives in some of my Seti@home crunchers, back
when I was involved with S@h Classic.
That older hardware has other uses with Linux; it'll make a fine firewall
or file/print server for a home network.
Gary
--
Gary Heston ghe...@hiwaay.net http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/
"Behind every successful woman there is an astonished man"
General of the Army (four stars) Ann Dunwoody
OhioGuy
> computers could be comfortable with a Linux-based computer at home.
You must not have tried Linux Mint yet. It will play pretty much any
video or sound file right out of the box. That's what I use Windows for
95% of the time anyway.