Repurposing old computers

[serpentwalker666]

One thing that can be difficult in this day and age is managing E-waste.

You have so many laptops, televisions, desktop computers and all sorts of electronics that are made seemingly almost endlessly, and then no where it is able to go but into landfills, and or toxic materials like circuit boards ending up in streams, rivers and lakes.
This post I will go into a few realistic ways one can manage their own E-waste, and maybe even breathe new like into otherwise obsolete hardware.

As technology and operating systems race forward at an unstoppable pace, many developers and tech companies pay no mind and don't care how much RAM or Processing power a base operating system like Windows or Mac OS uses. Many systems end up being not usable for 5, 10, or 15 year old laptops or desktops even if the hardware since functions fine as intended.
Linux can be better for this, and some distributions are tailored specifically to work and be optimized for older hardware.

It's important for people to be more aware of how harmful e-waste is for the planet, so repurposing old technology is a good solution. You could take an old laptop, or desktop and have it for a small digital library, and even mirror stacks of data and files between multiple different machines, and keep important files in many different places to where the chances of losing everything is negligible.

Think outside the box, the possibilities are truly endless. You can turn it into a retro machine for old programs, or even make a desktop into a dedicated machine for virtualization, or hardware emulation.

Why throw it away to end up in a landfill when you could make it into a giant library of physics resources and advanced mathematics?


For most systems, I'd recommend seeing how Debian or Xubuntu run first, as worst case scenario you can switch to something lighter, but this is a good gauge on where your hardware is at in terms of capabilities.

Xubuntu

Xubuntu – Xubuntu is an elegant and easy-to-use operating system.

xubuntu.org

Debian -- The Universal Operating System

www.debian.org

If you are fine with a more tailored distribution, these are some to start with, they work fine on most older systems, same as the ones I recommend above.

Tiny Core Linux, Micro Core Linux, 12MB Linux GUI Desktop, Live, Frugal, Extendable

Welcome - Tiny Core Linux

www.tinycorelinux.net

https://www.bunsenlabs.org/index.html

GitHub - arthurchoung/HOTDOG: X11 Window Manager with Windows 3.1 Hot Dog Stand, Amiga Workbench, Atari ST GEM, Mac Classic and Aqua UI

X11 Window Manager with Windows 3.1 Hot Dog Stand, Amiga Workbench, Atari ST GEM, Mac Classic and Aqua UI - arthurchoung/HOTDOG

github.com

If you feel like getting adventurous, FreeBSD and OpenBSD are great options, but be advised that these are like wrestling an alligator on many cpu chipsets and wifi adapters. If you have cabled ethernet, use it.
It will save you the hassle of fighting with ifconfig, or wpa-supplicant.

Nvidia cards are tricky to get working on FreeBSD, but in many cases it's very doable.

The FreeBSD Project

FreeBSD is an operating system used to power modern servers, desktops, and embedded platforms.

www.freebsd.org

OpenBSD is completely incompatible with Nvidia Cards, and HDMI Audio is unsupported. There is alot here you have to configure and test depending on the machine you put this on, but if you are up for the challenge, give it a go.
The hardware requirements for OpenBSD are very minimal despite its problems.

OpenBSD

the main OpenBSD page

www.openbsd.org

I am keeping this post a bit compact, further posts will go more in depth with virtualization of operating system for people interested in this.

As always, I deeply hope this post is informative and useful.

E-waste is a serious problem in our world. Why not make use of your old computers? It doesn't hurt to try.

 

[Desdemona_666]

Running an OS is not enough. Most people cannot live without the Web, modern web is very demanding and browsing it can be painfully slow on old devices (basically everything today runs on JavaScript).

But don’t let that discourage you if you don’t want to part with your old machine. By all means, try the above out.

 

[serpentwalker666]

Running an OS is not enough. Most people cannot live without the Web, modern web is very demanding and browsing it can be painfully slow on old devices (basically everything today runs on JavaScript).

But don’t let that discourage you if you don’t want to part with your old machine. By all means, try the above out.

This is very true in many cases, but thankfully there's some decent minimal browsers for hardware if it's very old, and many lightweight browsers are around if wanted.

You are right though, it can be a challenge and in some cases it is better off to just get a newer computer.

 

[Henu the Great]

Running an OS is not enough. Most people cannot live without the Web, modern web is very demanding and browsing it can be painfully slow on old devices (basically everything today runs on JavaScript).

But don’t let that discourage you if you don’t want to part with your old machine. By all means, try the above out.

Adblockers and in some cases, NoScript addon will greatly improve performance, but in some cases, javascript needs to be enabled in order to have full functionality.

I will soon try the above OS on my older, year 2014 high-performance rig that acts as an office computer.

 

[serpentwalker666]

Adblockers and in some cases, NoScript addon will greatly improve performance, but in some cases, javascript needs to be enabled in order to have full functionality.

I will soon try the above OS on my older, year 2014 high-performance rig that acts as an office computer.

I'm glad I could be of some help here. Please let me know if you need any help with drivers or any further guidance. Some of these Operating Systems I list here require some tinkering.

 

[Henu the Great]

I'm glad I could be of some help here. Please let me know if you need any help with drivers or any further guidance. Some of these Operating Systems I list here require some tinkering.

Sorry, I forgot to mention I am about to try Xubuntu. I am quite familiar with these.

 

[serpentwalker666]

Sorry, I forgot to mention I am about to try Xubuntu. I am quite familiar with these.

Xubuntu is a very decent distro, it's ubuntu but without all the canonical questionable decisions. Sure, it still contains snaps if I recall correctly, but even though I daily drive Devuan, I have deeply enjoyed Xubuntu.

 

[Basileus]

I understand your desire to help the world by not wasting electronics and pollute the earth but for some new things to arrive and happen some old one has to entirely eliminated for the new to come. A decent laptop can be bought very cheap , especially second hand from the internet or social medias groups , those companies are making the phones and laptops in a way that , although they are very powerful their operating system is coded in a way for the phone/computer to eventually 'lag' blaming the hardware's when in reality it's those companies who 'viruses' them devices trough programs to make others buy it again and again ,a good solution would be to make people aware of this very thing and then we would have less pollution on the globe due to electrical waste and many other things.

 

[serpentwalker666]

I understand your desire to help the world by not wasting electronics and pollute the earth but for some new things to arrive and happen some old one has to entirely eliminated for the new to come. A decent laptop can be bought very cheap , especially second hand from the internet or social medias groups , those companies are making the phones and laptops in a way that , although they are very powerful their operating system is coded in a way for the phone/computer to eventually 'lag' blaming the hardware's when in reality it's those companies who 'viruses' them devices trough programs to make others buy it again and again ,a good solution would be to make people aware of this very thing and then we would have less pollution on the globe due to electrical waste and many other things.

I am not opposed to buying new technology and devices, nor should anyone else be. I own some older hardware and laptops, along with some newer computers.

The problem we have however is we still have no realistic way to stop these old electronics devices and computers from polluting and poisoning the planet heavily. It's a very serious problem, it's right up there with plastic.

You have whole areas of third world nations where just heaps and heaps of old computers and electronics are dumped and burned and even with recycling there's nothing that done to a sufficient extent for these components.

I understand not everyone can have a use case for keeping and repurposing older hardware, but it is important to do if possible.

I encourage you to research into this and watch many videos how toxic and bad for the environment old computers and electronics are, and you'll understand why I'm focused on the whole thing.

 

[Basileus]

I am not opposed to buying new technology and devices, nor should anyone else be. I own some older hardware and laptops, along with some newer computers.

The problem we have however is we still have no realistic way to stop these old electronics devices and computers from polluting and poisoning the planet heavily. It's a very serious problem, it's right up there with plastic.

You have whole areas of third world nations where just heaps and heaps of old computers and electronics are dumped and burned and even with recycling there's nothing that done to a sufficient extent for these components.

I understand not everyone can have a use case for keeping and repurposing older hardware, but it is important to do if possible.

I encourage you to research into this and watch many videos how toxic and bad for the environment old computers and electronics are, and you'll understand why I'm focused on the whole thing.

As I've said, I know without needing to look anymore what you're saying. The reason of those computer failing to function is due to the softwares reasons not hardware. One way to stop pollution is to make people aware of this very thing, of how the big tech companies/corporations are infecting those devices with viruses which can't be hidden which came mostly on updates.

On my device I have windows 10 ( which works way faster and better then 11, tested) because I'm right in what I've said. My updated are turned off trough some special settings which can be done in literal 2 minutes without requiring too much of a big brain to do so:

And again, I repeat, the devices are good, regardless of their age, it is the software connection trough forced updates of Windows which fuck up the actual electrical competent not the literal physical thing but it's brain "software".

The better solution I see would be not to use old computers but to show people that those computer/phone companies are garbage and do what I've said. The Govs are not carrying about this thing because they're making loads of money for their owj supremacy which is retarded in itself because we're all humans but leaders always worked against us, but not anymore, the more we wake up to truth the better.

 

[serpentwalker666]

As I've said, I know without needing to look anymore what you're saying. The reason of those computer failing to function is due to the softwares reasons not hardware. One way to stop pollution is to make people aware of this very thing, of how the big tech companies/corporations are infecting those devices with viruses which can't be hidden which came mostly on updates.

On my device I have windows 10 ( which works way faster and better then 11, tested) because I'm right in what I've said. My updated are turned off trough some special settings which can be done in literal 2 minutes without requiring too much of a big brain to do so:

And again, I repeat, the devices are good, regardless of their age, it is the software connection trough forced updates of Windows which fuck up the actual electrical competent not the literal physical thing but it's brain "software".

The better solution I see would be not to use old computers but to show people that those computer/phone companies are garbage and do what I've said. The Govs are not carrying about this thing because they're making loads of money for their owj supremacy which is retarded in itself because we're all humans but leaders always worked against us, but not anymore, the more we wake up to truth the better.

To be honest here I would do more research into what I explain here and not come to half-thought conclusions about important subjects. If you don't care, that's fine too and understandable..

 

[Basileus]

Sorry about the grammar mistakes and the price was $1.500 not 15k.

I* care* samd.

Have a nice one !