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Reviving the long dead laptop
Iain:
Bought a laptop in 1999, used it a lot and then got a new computer. Just the other day I found it in a box and decided that as I spent a relative shedload on it back then I really ought to do something with it. Was thinking word processing stuff and maybe an experiment into Linux or some alternative OS, despite no experience in this field. If I get clever there is a wireless PCMCIA network card lying around here somewhere.
Specs, as I remember them are - 433mhz Celeron, 96mb RAM, and 4gb hard drive. It was previously running Windows 98 reasonably happily.
Any ideas?
Guest:
poor mans ipod.... mp3's , winamp, and plug er' into your stereo
jamz:
I still have my PCJr from the 80's. It still plays Flight Simulator okay, but the horizontal hold is on the fritz.
Felonious Monk/Fignozzle:
Donate it to a local school district or mentally disabled industry in the area.
It'll be worth more to them, AND give plenty of feelgood/philanthropic benefits to you.
mtnbkr:
I just bought a used laptop for my mom for $200. It was a PII-355 with 64megs of ram and a 10gig drive. I added another 128megs of ram. It runs Win98 quite fast. I loaded some basic apps and updated the OS.
I installed my SMC wireless card to see how well that would work. I'll be darned if it didn't work quite well. Frankly, this laptop has lots of life left if you don't need the latest bells and whistles. It would probably run Win2k reasonably well, but it's not worth the time and effort for her needs. The only negative is that the battery won't hold a charge at all. A new battery would likely cost half or more what the laptop cost.
I'd load linux on yours and see how well it runs. I used to have an old Toshiba Portege that wasn't Y2K compliant, so it was going to get tossed at work (this was late 1999). I adopted it, added more memory, a 4gig drive, and installed Slackware Linux (v7). It ran quite well. I gave it to a non-computing friend of mine to get them onto the Internet. They used it for over a year before they outgrew it and got a desktop (no, they didn't even own a PC at that point). Old laptops and PCs are fun as long as you don't expect much.
Chris
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