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How to keep your old PC alive
Technology » Operating Systems » Linux - 06/10/2007Windows and most of the proprietary software requires more and more computer power as it's version increases. This results to new hardware all the time for us. But what about our old abandoned PCs? Should we throw them away?
Of course not! Linux gives us many opportunities to use our old hardware and keep it alive while saving money.
Here I will give you some of my ideas:
Firewall – Proxy server
One of the best uses for an old PC is to turn it to a dedicated hardware firewall machine. There are some Linux distributions like Devil Linux and SmoothWall that do just that, but you can do it with any distro anyway, as Linux has it's own firewall, IPTables.If you combine it with a small proxy server like Squid, you will also gain lots of bandwidth and speed to your home network, and of course this can save you some money.
To do all that you don't need a fancy Linux distribution with all the latest technology stuff. You need just a simple and very light distribution. And for optimal performance, you don't even need a graphical interface. After all, you won't use it all the time, you just set it and forget it. You can just install Webmin to configure it using your web browser from another PC, just like you do it for your router.
If your PC is strong enough, you might try to use Spamassasin too. It's a program used to clean your email from SPAM. Very useful.
Development server
In my office I have a main PC and two laptops that I use regular.
One day I noticed how many resources in those computers I was spending to run all that stuff. I was actually running Apache three times, I was having three copies of all my databases, etc. So what I did was to setup an older PC just to keep all that stuff in one place.
I got an Pentium 3 PC from my old work, that was resting in a closet. I installed fedora. It's not the lightest, but it's my favorite distro. Of course I didn't install a graphical interface.
I installed on it Apache, MySQL, PHP, CVS, FTP (to access my files easily) and phpMyAdmin. I also forwarded some ports from my router to this PC, so I can access all my data when I am not in home. And them stopped all the services running in the other PCs. I didn't uninstall them because sometimes can be useful (mostly in the laptops), but not running them made my machines faster.
Storage Server
Similar to the last solution, if you have 1-2 big hard disks and many computers, you can connect them to an old PC and use it as a storage server in your home network. For example you can save all your mp3s (or oggs) in this PC and access them from all the other computers through the network.There are operating systems designed for storage servers. Try FreeNAS.
Media Station
If your PC is strong enough to play videos, you could install it in your living room running a distro for multimedia. You can connect it to your home network (or to Internet) and play streams. Maybe a small case mod will be good for that case.Check distros like Mythbuntu.
P2P Download Machine
Run any small distribution you wish, and load it with P2P software to download torrents and files from other networks. Also install some software for remote control of the computer, like VNC... And you have a download server!Small Workstation
If your work isn't really advanced and you need a PC just to surf or for word processing, you don't have to use an expensive PC. You can also use your old machine. What you need is just the proper software.There is a number of Linux distributions for this reason. Puppy Linux and Damn Small Linux are two of them. You can also run some of the bigger distros like Fedora or Ubuntu, but you will have to do some customization, like changing the window manager to something lighter, like XFCE.
It will also be safer than using your Windows machine to surf... because there isn't a real risk from viruses if you use Linux.
Thin Client
One solution that I see in schools and small environments is using all the old PCs as thin clients. What you do is to have one strong PC with all the storage, and a number of old PCs connected together in a local network. You set all the old PCs to boot from Network and you install a distro with that ability to the big PC. For example you can try Skolelinux or ThinStation. What you gain is a number of really low cost workstations that can be used for education or surfing or even simple office work. Pretty good, huh?Cluster
A little complicated thing you can do is to run a cluster. In simple words, you connect all your PCs and share their power to run applications. That's advanced stuff and you cannot use it in any application, but it's an option anyway. Try ClusterKnoppix.There are many more ways to make your old hardware productive. The only limit is your imagination...
Send us your comments or your ideas for using old hardware through comments here...
(Note that comments are moderated and your comment will not appear immediately).
Yannis – Pastis 'mrpc' Glaros
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Comments
- moyats!thx
linux rules
By: Pocahont@s @ 07/10/2007 - Those are awfully simple but usefull suggestions. I might try the first option sooner or later. But at this moment my computer that was bought back in 2000 works very fast, even when running 3D applications (check my blog). It is indeed amazing what you can do with Linux on relatively old and slow computers!
Cheers,
Maarten
By: Maarten Kooiker @ 07/10/2007 - How about a stand alone bit torrent machine - http://www.asktheadmin.com/2007/07/build-stand-alone-bit-torrent-computer.html
By: AskTheAdmin @ 07/10/2007 - I built a Skype box with an old Pentium 3. I bought an RJ-11 to USB adapter and I hooked it to the house landline and to the computer. All our telephones are now Skype phones AND regular land line phones. To use Skype, we just have to dial * then the number.
Awesome!
By: Carl Mercier @ 07/10/2007 - I think you missed a bet on your general purpose Linux distribution recommendations. You jump right from Damn Small and Puppy to Fedora. The sweet spot for an older machine is elsewhere. I'd put Slackware on it, but a newbie would probably feel better with Zenwalk. It's Slackware based but friendlier, uses XFCE by default, has an online package manager and is very actively developed. Two other Slackware derivatives, Vector and Absolute, are also good candidates. Vector has always been noted for its speed, and also has a package manager integrated in. Also, I think both PCLinuxOS and Mepis have light versions, and they are very easy-to-use distros.
By: joe ferrare @ 07/10/2007 - @Carl Mercier: Thats a good idea!
By: mrpc @ 07/10/2007 - @joe ferrare: I didn't know about PCLinuxOS and MEPIS having small versions. Good point.
As for Slackware... I never suggested this to new users... And when I was writing the article, I had in mind that regular Linux users already know that stuff...
By: mrpc @ 07/10/2007 - This is useful, thanks:)
By: alleks @ 07/10/2007 - I´ve just built a home-server from an old Celeron-466. Put it to a wall, concealed by a wooden box. Two HDs and Debian make it fit to serve as a local fileserver, music-server (via MPC), fax-server (Hylafax) and Tor-proxy. Instead of Apache I use lighttpd.
I´ve never really used Linux before, but it almost instantly amazed me (this coming from a guy that calls 3 Macs his own...)
Before Linux I had Windows2000 running on the same box (in its original housing but headless) and I really hated having to use the GUI via VNC for operating. Its incredibly clumsy compared to using the shell on debian.
I´m going to name my son after Linus! (seriously)
Greetings!
By: joshua @ 07/10/2007 - try tinyxp - much better than any linux brand. works great on slow machines.
By: sally green @ 07/10/2007 - @joshua: Wow! Nice idea! Email that to Linus Torvalds... I think he will be really proud!
By: mrpc @ 07/10/2007 - FreeNAS != Linux
as indicated by the Beastie in its logo, FreeNAS is based on FreeBSD.
By: klu @ 07/10/2007 - @klu: I agree, I didn't say it's linux.
"There are operating systems designed for storage servers. Try FreeNAS."
By: mrpc @ 07/10/2007 - I think you missed a bet on your general purpose Linux distribution recommendations. You jump right from Damn Small and Puppy to Fedora. The sweet spot for an older machine is elsewhere. I'd put Slackware on it, but a newbie would probably feel better with Zenwalk. It's Slackware based but friendlier, uses XFCE by default, has an online package manager and is very actively developed. Two other Slackware derivatives, Vector and Absolute, are also good candidates. Vector has always been noted for its speed, and also has a package manager integrated in. Also, I think both PCLinuxOS and Mepis have light versions, and they are very easy-to-use distros.
By: joe ferrare @ 07/10/2007 - got a machine with 32 mb or ram... anyoen know a desktop environment that will work apart from Win 95/2000 as all the distros ive tried requires more!
By: Mark Rushworth @ 07/10/2007 - Hi,
This article has very useful information, it will be helpful for many. Actually one of my friends first read this article and asked me to visit this page.
It’s really amazing to read this description of this article. Thank you so much for your help and for your efforts.
Thanks,
Alex
http://www.NobleHelp.org
By: Alex @ 08/10/2007 - Take a moderately fast desktop machine (800+Ghz), install Xubuntu and enable LTSP on it. Then network boot Pentium 1 -200mhz or newer as clients.
By: john @ 08/10/2007 - Refering:
got a machine with 32 mb or ram... anyoen know a desktop environment that will work apart from Win 95/2000 as all the distros ive tried requires more!
By: Mark Rushworth @ 08/10/2007
You can try Puppy or Damn Small . guess both will fit in your box.
By: Raveesh @ 08/10/2007 - a storage server for an old pc seems a very nice use.
By: syaihd ali @ 09/10/2007 - As a newbie I found Puppy much easier than DSL.
By: weee @ 10/10/2007 - You could just set it up with a small distribution and let your kids work on it keeping the main comp free from all the crap they fill it with ^_^
By: Ugashia @ 15/10/2007 - Rather than suggesting this i would upgrade my peripherals mayb proccessor and ram and use the pc all over again ... giving it another 4-5 years of good life....
By: JaCK @ 15/10/2007 - Or you could sell it?
The money you make you could use to invest in equipment for your newew PC such as a graphics card or larger monitor.
By: Chase Casey @ 15/11/2007 - Hi!
I´m from Brazil and Puppy Linux is my solution for Internet Banking. Official version needs install Java, but derivatives like TEENPup are released with Java and Firefox browser.
You can save your documents (e.g html, mht or pdf format) on any folder and using any storage device (CD/DVD-RW, SATA/PATA HD, USB pen drive, SD Card etc. -- NTFS, FAT32 or FAT16).
Puppy is useful on old and new hardware, and boots very fast.
Congratulations for your article, Yannis. Thanks for good sugestions!
Elenara
By: Elenara @ 02/07/2009