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What's the best way to make use of an old laptop? (hexbear.net)

submitted 4 months ago by MaoTheLawn@hexbear.net to c/technology@hexbear.net

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My aunt's got an old slightly broken laptop. She's got a new one. No one has any need for this old one anymore. It has no selling value. Etc etc etc.

I know I can put an SSD in it and run it on Linux to make it run smoothly as a laptop for emails and word processing etc, but I already have a crap old laptop for exactly that.

What sort of fun things can you do with an old laptop? I'm talking like, using it as a whole new device. Maybe using it as a 'TV Box' of sorts - getting some radio apps, and hacked streaming apps... Or loading up a bunch of PS2 games on it... or having it as the jankiest personal assistant, with timers, and calendars, and all that.

You know what I mean.

I love pointless gadgetry.

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[–] znonymous@hexbear.net 17 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

I turn all my old laptops into servers. Most often, I use them to experiment with various self-hosted services.

Most laptops these days can be put into clamshell mode, especially if they have an HDMI out. Just get a headless dummy plug -- they run about $6.

Plug one of those in, close the display, and you have a small, book-sized server with a built-in continuous power supply backup battery.

Of course eventually, the power consumption of all these devices can add up. Older devices are often less efficient. Sometimes, just retiring and getting a device "recycled" (to the extent possible) is best.

[–] MaoTheLawn@hexbear.net 7 points 4 months ago (3 children)

What sort of self hosted services do you mean?

[–] znonymous@hexbear.net 11 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Stuff like this:

https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted

[–] MaoTheLawn@hexbear.net 2 points 4 months ago

That rules

[–] copyleft@hexbear.net 11 points 4 months ago

I do the same thing they do. Currently running Jellyfin and Nextcloud off a 2011 macbook.

[–] RedWizard@hexbear.net 6 points 4 months ago

I run a few:

AudioBookShelf for podcasts
Calibre-Web for ebooks which syncs with my Kobo Sage
Shiori for making bookmarks and archives of articles
Miniflux, an RSS reader.