I got my old laptop back. What should I do with it?

The laptop is a Samsung VM8000. It has been upgraded over the years. The current configuration is: Pentium 3 1000MHz, 2 x 128MB of RAM, 40GB HDD, and a CD-ROM drive. I have a spare DVD-RW drive. I'll try it and see if it's compatible.

According to what I read online the laptop supports 2 x 256MB of RAM. I don't think I'll upgrade the RAM since it costs more than what the laptop is worth.

I've used this laptop for a while, and then passed it to a relative, and then to another relative. Today it was returned back to me.

Any suggestions for this 10 years old laptop?

 

put it in a museum and charge 50 cents a ticket.

 

Install a lite linux distro and use it as a web/ftp server. Or use it as a 7/24 download machine (torrent etc).

If you turn-off the screen it should not withdraw more than 15 Watts.


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I really did like the download machine idea. My desktop used to do the job, now it is my ASUS which is connected to my TV. I feel sorry for that laptop, working 24/7..

 

Yep, put it on download duty. That's pretty much what i use my N50 for now.

 

Use it for a MAME machine for old school games like Pac-Man, Galaga, Donkey Kong, etc. That's what my old Sempron machine did for a while. Was going to use it in my kids room for a media PC but not sure if it will handle 720p lol.

 

No need to.

As long as you don't let it overheat it should work just fine. I have seen several people using their old laptops in 7/24 duties without any issues.


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I don't need a server, and I don't need a 24/7 download machine at the moment. I like the idea of installing linux though. I could use this laptop to learn linux

What distro would you recommand?
puppet linux maybe?
or the alternate version of ubuntu?

 

Get some lightweight distro! Ubuntu is too heavy to be useful on 256MB of RAM.

A distro with Xfce might work fine but LXDE would be a better choice when it comes to performance. Sure, there's L/Xubuntu but they are pretty bloated due to their package dependencies.
If you really want to learn about Linux I'd recommend Debian or Slackware. If you just want to toy around any distro will be fine.

 

Wary Puppy is good for older hardware. I use it on a 750 MHz Duron.

Wary Puppy Linux
Barry Kauler - Powered by PPLOG

 

When I suggested ubuntu I was thinking about an old version. I have a live CD of ubuntu 610 (october 2006). It should be light enough, shouldn't it?

 

No, an old version is not a good idea. Ubuntu 6.10 doesn't receive any security updates for more than 3 years now.
Also there have been a lot of changes in the past 5 years. Learning how to handle a 5 years old distro makes no sense.

 

No, I don't let it overheat And I have taken the screen off (a awesome 15,6 inch LED) and using it with external keyboard. It does have pretty easy job to be honest


OP: You can use it for testing out new software? I always have a laptop I test out diffrent new programs on and pass it over to my daily laptop if it is any good. But it may be a bit slow for the job? :/

 

donate to smithsonian for technology history lol, thats about all its good for now. I have a thinkpad 600e just sitting around doing nothing with windows 98 on it too.

 

oh hell no. you just brought back bad memories. windows '98. why'd you have to go there?

 

I think the speed that the 3.11 provides me is invaluable

 

Windows 3.11?

 

i forgot what ibm's os was called but that was great.

 

DOS is the word of passion, I just remember the search for the one word poem, and that is DOS

 

OS/2 was IBM's proprietary OS

c'mon i'm 17 and I still remember this crap lol

 

i'm twice your age and only used it for half a year before the crap for windows. i didn't "like" windows until vista. and android is nice too though a different beast.

 

Hmm, all this makes me wonder if we still have that Texas Instruments laptop running windows 3.11 somewhere (i think it was a TI). Laptop ball mouse, this brings back memories hehe.

Not sure if it wasn't disposed of at some point though.

 

After my old desktop mobo died I used a 9 year old ThinkPad T30 with the same specs as OP aside from the CPU (Pentium IV 1.4GHz) for a couple of months. It ran great. Used it for the web, word processing, streaming video, and Gameboy emulator. I still have it right here next to me. I was using it the other week while I RMA'd my first HP. It's a shame I can guarantee I'll never own another computer that can last 9 years.

 

Wow all these laptop seem powerful to a laptop I owned till last year. A Toshiba Sattelite with 400mhz Intel Celeron CPU, 5mb internal graphics and 64 mb ram did I mention also a 4GB HDD!!.

Tried to use it to digitally record my Records but it was too sloow

 

what did happen to it?

My sumsung was running a lite version of XP that I made with nLite. This version requires about 50mb of RAM, and 60-70mb of RAM after installing the drivers.

I didn't find the 6.10 CD. I just finished installing the 8.04 LTS version. The optical driver is very slow and thus it took me over 2 hours to complete the install.

How old is your laptop? 1 or 2 years old, isn't it?

I would like to do this, but can't since the laptop has only 256MB RAM, so I can't test the latest software on it.

I'm downloading Chrome OS. If I can get it to work, it will allow me to experiment what it is like to do everything in the web without having to own or install any software .

I've read somewhere that someone used his old laptop with a nintendo emulator. I can try to install old games and give it to my nephew who is 6-7 years old.
By the way any good webside for vantage video games?

 

I managed to sell it for a tenner haha. No idea how! It ran Windows 98 and I absolutely cleaned it out to make it as fast as possible.

Basically someone came to buy an old motherboard for overclocking purposes and I managed to persuade him to take the laptop too

 

IBM thinkpad 600e with Pentium II @ 266 MHz, 128MB ram, 2.5MB VRAM, now has a 40gb hard drive

 

toshiba satellite 2060CDS 366mhz AMD K6 processor, 64mb ram, runs win XP reasonably well. It has ONE USB port, so i use it to transfer stuff from old floppies to a USB stick if i happen to need to read a floppy. That thing was a real workhorse.

 

I wrote most of my book on a 66MHz 486 laptop made by ARM (32MB of RAM, 2GB HD). Just goes to show that you don't need modern hardware to get work done. In fact, older hardware is often much more reliable than the crap they make these days. Oh God I'm starting to sound old.

 

I agree.

What get in my nerves is the drastic change that happened in the way software are been developed. In the past the emphasis was in optimisation. Developers tried their best to make their software run as fast as it was permitted by the harddware. Recently the tendency is to rely on the constant increase in harddrives' capacity, decrease in memory cost, and increase in processing power to make their software run smother. As a result software are bulkier and bulkier. For instance, Photoshop CS 4 lite require about 100MB in a harddrive, while the normal version require almost 2GB. God knows what's on the 1.9GB difference between the two, surely not the help files. No wanders that even after upgrading the hardware, one has a bit of a hard time noticing a real increase in performance.

 

it's all about the horsepower these days. i just don't see anybody making a mack truck at least half as aerodynamic as a brick wall in a hurricane. get'r done!!!

 

I'm sad to say that you're right