What to do with an old laptop?

So I'm sure everybody here is so used to seeing threads about laptops that are fairly new, maybe a couple years old, but I have to say that my old laptop is... well... in my mind... OLD. (Now that I say it, not really then actually)

I have a Compaq Presario 1800T with a PIII 850, 384 MB RAM (128onboard + 256MB), a 15 (can you believe, NON widescreen?!) inch 1400x1050 display. I still have a 802.11b (back when Microsoft actually made these products) PC Card for it too. Has a DVD/CD-RW, a 56K modem, and some pretty decent speakers/keyboard/mouse. Graphics is ATI Rage Pro I think... 16MB...There's nothing wrong with it, it's just... old. And thick. And heavy. Battery lasts a good..mm... 15 minutes... I have a 100GB 7200RPM Hitachi HDD I can put in it...am open to suggestions as to what OS to put on it. I have XP/Vista/Win7... am open to any flavor of Linux too I suppose...

My question to you all is... what should I do with this? I mean, I thought about turning it into maybe a kitchen computer, just permanently plugged into the wall, using the WiFi card, just for checking email/internet I suppose... but to be honest, in a family where my mom works out of town Monday-Fri, my dad is a couch potato that is not very computer literate, and I'm in front of my desktop all day, what else can/should I do with this?

Discuss. I think this laptop still can do something... I just felt bad after putting it in the e-Waste pickup box (along with my HP Deskjet 895Cxi) and so I took it back out...

My only other thought is ... if I turn it into a kitchen computer I can have it running PolarClock or FliqLo as a screensaver, so it's a giant clock... (and a giant waste of power also... )

 

Give it to your dad and show him what he can do with it. The people that can't use computers well are probably the best ones to give older-but-still-working hardware to, to train them in a sense.

 

I've given the last two to high school students who don't come from families that can afford one. Their value drops off considerably in three years anyway. A student can and will put it to better use that warehousing it in a closet or giving it to a computer shop to strip for parts.

 

That's something I'd give to my nieces after loading Ubuntu Netbook Remix (let's face it, it's about as powerful as a netbook, right?).

 

I second giving it to a high school student. really, if anyone can use it, it would a high school student. That's what my first computer was in high school.