What do I do with an old laptop?

[Carthik Sharma]

On 2/22/06, Colin Brace <cb at lim.nl> wrote:
> On 2/22/06, Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> [big snip]
>

Suggestions so far:

>make it into a big clunky ipod with amarok and blackbox.  buy a
wireless pcmcia card and you can stream audio from wherever.

I have to buy the card for this - will look into this. I have no
immediate need for a music-station but I might in the future.

>the not-so-creative solution of simply keeping it as a backup or as a
portable typewriter.

Good one! I already have a laptop and two desktops though :)

>make a network probe out of it :) NTop is great for it

What does a network probe do? How do i do what you describe?

>Add a USB2 or Firewire PCI card, one with two (or more) ports. connect a
network adapter on one port, and an external harddrive on the other, and
you have an instant home-network wide file server and backup solution;
one that is small, quiet and energy efficient.

Will it fast enough though? Right now, my ubuntu desktop does backup duty.

>Not terribly creative, sorry! How about keeping it near your desktop and
using it to help diagnose other users questions?
1) Without an ethernet card you would be in a great position to assist
similar users with alternate methods of installing software/updates, etc.
2) Someone is having a problem that relates to their filesystem in some
manner. You could fire up the Compaq and report what your machine does
and what might be of use to them.
3) You could pop for a PCMCIA ethernet (wireless or wired) and make
yourself an expert on PCMCIA networking.
4) You have serial and parallel ports. You could become an expert on
alternate methods of installing Ubuntu or moving files between computers.
5) Fiddle around with making the "Ultimate Minimalist Useable Ubuntu"
installation for your hardware.

Good one! I am not at the support forum most of the time, though. I
would be glad to donate this to a developer, or canonical, if I am
assured it will be put to use for testing, and not resold.

>Use it as an extra display for your main computer using x2x
[http://technomancy.us/article/x2x] (I've done this, and it's really
great.)

Interesting-looks like a great possibility

>4. Install mpd [http://musicpd.org] and put gmpc on your desktop.
Music server/client -- great idea, but not immediately neccessary
since i live in a smallish apartment.

>If you are a family oriented (or somebody who likes photography
really), make it into a digital frame.
Hmm, but an expensive one to run/maintain, don't you think? Think of
all the electricity... :)

>Donate it to me :)
I will, if you can convince me you have use for an additional laptop :)

>Install FreeDOS and use it as a serial terminal for your main computer -
a second screen with a shell is never wrong.
And keep it running all the time?


Honestly, does Canonical have a program where they accept laptops for
acknowledged developers who can use it to test stuff with? Or is this
too old to be useful to Canonical/Ubuntu?

Thanks for all the responses, peeps!

Carthik.

--
Ph.D. Candidate
University of Central Florida
Homepage: http://carthik.net