What to do with old computers????

[Dreamer]

Please excuse my lack of knowledge in this area. I have been using computers since the DOS days, but never really played around with hardware, only software....

I have an old computer here, it is a Pentuim 1 150mhz, 1.6gb hd and 32mb ram. Is this good for anything besides the trash?

I am also going to be leaving shortly to look at another computer that I can have for free. The person who has it only told me that it says IBM on it, so it probaby is REALLY old!
I can get the monitor too, which I can use as the monitor I have on my desktop is going. About the only thing I do with that computer now is FAD.

So.... any help would be appreciated....

Thanks!

[Bok]

150 means it's a P1 I think. I wouldn't use it personally, it would take far too long for anything to run on it..

Bok

[alpha]

Old computers are good test/learning machines for *nix.

They are also good for coding. I do most of my coding on a Celeron 466 running FreeBSD.

[jasong]

If you're not interested in learning *nix, somebody else might be interested in installing LInux for themselves.

Why don't you get on Bargain Bin and ask somebody to send you the shipping & handling fee? (Just a thought)

[Dreamer]

Thanks for the replies....

I just returned from picking up the other computer, which is not nearly as old as I thought it was... It is an Aptiva, with an AMD K6-2 running at 300 mhz... Does anyone know which projects might run best on that?

As far as the P1 goes, I figured it was too old... One of the things on my to-do list includes learning *nix... and I thought it would perfect for that.
How about running any DC projects on it under *nix? Will they run fast enough? Is there any way to get more than one processor working together at the same time?

Lots of questions, lots for me left to learn...

[QIbHom]

With one of theLinux distros designed for old computers, that 150 actually becomes usable. I have a Pentium 100 laptop I actually use occasionally. Then you can save the cycles on your real computers for DC.

Seriously, you could make them into firewalls or some kind of specialized server, but even the K-2 (ah, the Aptiva AMD K-2s...those were fine computers...)is a bit old for any DC project I know. Alternatively, put a Linux distro designed for an older computer on it, too, and donate it to a church,really poor non-profit or someone like that. For the kind of web browsing and minor word processing most folks do, they won't really notice it isn't Windows.

Learning Linux is fun. Head on over to http://www.distrowatch.com, and read reviews, download interesting looking distros, and try them out. With equipment of that age, Damn Small Linux isn't a bad place to start.