Uses for p133 laptop?

[oldsoldier]

I have an old Acer Nuovo laptop, p133w48mb running win95. Been keeping it around as a backup, but new desktop makes that redundant. I will NOT trash/destroy it, but cannot find a good use for it. The local schools/libraries want p2's or above. Suggestions?

 

[The Green Bean]

save it up for a few decades....And there u have priceless 1990 stuff

Seriously though, The laptop is useless.

 

[KennyH]

Learn linux on it?

 

[johnjkr1]

hahaha, the school/library won't take it?!?!?!

that's just nuts...which school is this? the rockerfeller school for the rich?

 

[50]

They can be pretty good thigh warmers this time of the year...

How about donating it to salvation army or some charity like that, I worked in the summer at hadassah and they took tons of those comps...

 

[oldsoldier]

Linux is a good idea.

The school is Houston ISD. I tried several of the other districts, same answer. I guess they do not want too many os's, seemed stupid too me also. That's why I posted the question.

 

[johnjkr1]

I live in Houston, i guess that might be part of the reason the schools are so bad...they dont understand that free is good. What, they couldn't give it to some needy kid? a 133 will run just fine for someone without a computer

 

[lameaway]

I can't beleive that people would call old hardware like that "useless"... especially for someone who might just want to get some work done away from their desk, the laptop is just as useful as the day it was made. Put it up on EBay or in the classifieds, and you could get $50 out of it, no problem.
If it was me, I'd keep it, add a PCMCIA wireless card, dump Win95 and load a lightweight Linux distro. It could function both standalone for E-Mail and web browsing and as an X terminal to my main box for heavier applications. Another idea would be to add both a wireless card and a USB sound card to make an instant network MP3 player for your home stereo. With a color screen and a nice GUI! Or you could just load it with a bunch of old console emulators... add a cheap VGA->NTSC converter and you've got a tiny box next to your TV containing all the vintage arcade games you could ever want. You just have to be a bit creative - there are lots of uses for a miniature pentium-class PC.

 

[Confused]

Any network connections/PCMCIA slots? That would make quite a nice little router for a home network, and the in-built battery will help it through those power cuts

If I had an old laptop, that's what I would do.


Confused

 

[otispunkmeyer]

paper weight

 

[rainypickles]

i have an old laptop too. it has a 16-bit card slot, so i dont think any wireless cards would work on it. no usb either. so, screwed. hahaha.

i think you should keep it around as backup. it was really useful when my desktop died and i had no way to get information from the internet. that laptop and trusty 56k helped me through it.

 

[Sid59]

sell it

 

[lameaway]

16-bit Wireless

 

[mechBgon]

Flip it over and use it as a plate warmer

 

[Nohr]

I use a P150 laptop exclusively for chatting using Trillian. I have it sat on my desk beside my main computer's monitor. That way if I'm playing a game, watching a dvd, or fiddling with overclocking on my main machine, I can always see my chat windows. Alt-tabbing out of games sucks!

 

[oldsoldier]

Thanks for the ideas. I'm going to try Linux until I meet a kid that can use it. It's people who throw anything not the latest and greatest that I think of when I see all the trash dumps.