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?

  • Ook the Librarian
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    16 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