Old Laptop: Suggestions?

Post by **thibodeaux** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 2:12 pm

I'm retiring an old laptop. The display is busted. Any suggestions? Besides boat anchor, of course.

I was thinking install Linux and use it as a webserver or something.

Post by **GORDON** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 3:00 pm

File server, web server, whatever-server.

Post by **thibodeaux** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 3:25 pm

Yeah, but windows or linux?

Post by **GORDON** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 3:30 pm

I'd vote Linux if you have the know-how, unless you want it to serve a Windows app at some point. Like your own AvP2 sever.

Post by **TheCatt** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 4:07 pm

I'd vote Windows for simplicity.

You can also make a media center PC out of it.

Or, a car-puter.

I've done each of those.

Post by **thibodeaux** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 5:55 pm

Aight then.

Post by **Vince** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 6:28 pm

What are the specs on the laptop? That would be my deciding factor on Linux or Windows.

Post by **thibodeaux** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 6:38 pm

Assume crappy. What's the decision?

Post by **GORDON** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 9:03 pm

Print server.

Spam server.

Edited By GORDON on 1199325820

Post by **Vince** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 10:09 pm

thibodeaux wrote:Assume crappy. What's the decision?

For crappy I'd go Linux. If you don't have any experience with Linux it's a good learning "oppertunity", and Linux was made for old hardware. At least it used to be. I hear the later releases are starting to become Windows with bloat.

I tend to find it funny that all the Linux fanbois bitch about Windows and each distro becomes more and more what they hate.

Malcolm · Post by **Malcolm** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 12:43 am

As more people get exposed to open source, open source may become more fucked up. Think about it. You've a free product that can theoretically be modified by anyone. The only thing that's keeping it from true shitdom is the fact that it requires some competency to modify it, hence there is some control mechanism over who can modify it.

Post by **TPRJones** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 3:47 am

If you're going Linux, try out the Fedora 7 distro designed specifically for the OLPC. It's very trim and fast without all the bloat pre-installed, and it comes in a convenient little package that is easy to get started with. But it also processes YUM and RPM just like any other Fedora distro, so you can selectively add bloat if you want more bells and whistles.

I'm not sure of the packaged version will work on a non-OLPC machine without tweaking, but it might. At least it would be fun to try.

Edited By TPRJones on 1200041394

DoctorChaos · Post by **DoctorChaos** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 7:22 am

Vince wrote:For crappy I'd go Linux. If you don't have any experience with Linux it's a good learning "oppertunity", and Linux was made for old hardware. At least it used to be. I hear the later releases are starting to become Windows with bloat.

I tend to find it funny that all the Linux fanbois bitch about Windows and each distro becomes more and more what they hate.

I got fed up with the bloat and switched toa BSD. The only problem is software development isn't as far along as on Linux. But it's really stable.

Post by **Vince** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 7:58 pm

Malcolm wrote:As more people get exposed to open source, open source may become more fucked up. Think about it. You've a free product that can theoretically be modified by anyone. The only thing that's keeping it from true shitdom is the fact that it requires some competency to modify it, hence there is some control mechanism over who can modify it.

For all the theoretical benefiets of open source, they've actually produced... um... thinking...