What can i do with an old netbook?

Submitted ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨Cano@lemm.ee⁩ to ⁨general@lemmy.world⁩

First of all, if you think I posted this in the wrong community then feel free to point me to some other community where i can post this.

I recently moved to another house and found an old laptop i had when I was 10 while looking through some old stuff. It’s an old Acer netbook, specs are

CPU: Intel Atom N2600, 1.6Ghz
RAM: 1GB, DDR3
Storage: 320GB HDD
Screen: 10.1" lcd, apparently it has a resolution of 1280x1024 according to the control panel but windows 7 won’t let me go beyond 1024x600

I thought about installing linux on it, however I don’t intend on using it for anything. I already have a good laptop and so does the rest of my family. The CPU is definetly too slow to do anything beyond simple text editing, and I’m sure it would explode if i tried going to the internet with it, so it’s not really suitable for daily driving. Thing is, it still works, and I don’t really feel like throwing it in the trash. Is there any possible use case for a machine like this? Can you suggest me some use cases for it?

source

Comments

Sort:hotnew top

PlasticExistence@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
It could still make a serviceable NAS computer, Pi-Hole, Minecraft server, etc. All of that is assuming it’s running some Linux distribution of course. It’s too old to be secure running some ancient Windows version.

source
AnAustralianPhotographer@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I would use it as a network attached storage / media player running Linux.

It doesn’t have to be always on, and having copies of photos or important documents would give peace of mind.

Debian, Ubuntu and the raspberry pi os (they have an installer for normal computers, not just pi’s) would be distributions I’d consider with the pi os at the top of the list.

This comic was posted on Lemmy recently.

Image

source
forty2@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Wonder if it would serve well as the brains of a smart mirror? And if you have the inclination to make one…

magicmirror.builders

source
ook_the_librarian@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I have an old netbook. I can’t offer help, but I can share my plan.

I hope to have it network boot from my useful computer. That way, I can use it in the kitchen to browse recipes and stuff. Of course, then I also get to brag about having a mainframe. No one has to know it’s a <$1k laptop.

I’m not sure if that would work for you. my netbook is 4GB ram.

Incidentally, I had a System76 computer with about those specs way back when. I loved it. It’s hard to justify that form factor now since flagship phones are basically filling that role today. But now that I think about it, it’s kinda like the equivalent of a 2024 smartphone was in my everyday-carry in 2009. Kinda wild to think about it that way. Not that it could make phone calls, but my phone doesn’t seem to do that either :P

source
Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
You could probably estimate how much poop is in the rectum of the entire human race, the rate at which it is ejected, the amount remaining, and all of the subsequent products you could make out of said poo. Computers are very powerful, and I think that your computer could handle these data points.

source