Linux For Various Usages and Low Spec's

All computer users, certainly have one or more laptops in the attic gathering dust. At least I had, a few ones...

Well, this once great machines, are now discontinued but they can still make some kind of special work for us.

All this computers maybe still got an OS, maybe windows 95 or 98, or even XP. Or for older linux lovers maybe some very old Red Hat distro, but that is just no problem, why dont install different flavours of linux in them???

At this this I'm going to start introducing what makes me write this article.

I have a few computers at home, and I don't like to see them without being plugged and doing something, so i have a lot of computer, some older than others but important in my network as well:

      1 - 486DX4 100MHZ, 8 Mb Ram, Hardrive 800Mb, Laptop - Soon, it will have Damn Small Linux for me to have a terminal running with the server.... Easy to be done

      2 - Pentium 3, 500Mhz, 384Mb Ram, Hardrive 10Gb, Desktop - It will be my my NAS, running freeNAS, and serving files for all other computers in the house. FreeNAS doesn't need fast hardware as it dont need monitor neither keyboarb, because it is configurable via ethernet after install, just like a common router. Of course there will be a 500Gb Usb 2.0 for storage.... Just a common linux instalation, I will report all of my steps here when I make it, sure it will be easy....

      3 - Pentium 4, 2Ghz, 1512Mb Ram, Hardrive 40Gb, Desktop - This is acting as server, This is already running Ubuntu 9.04 desktop edition. It has ftp server, ssh server, vnc server. Soon I'll explain how to configure all of this services.... You will see it's easy...

      4 - Now, not an old machine, but with low specs... My Asus eee 701, with no upgrades. I use it for chating and browsing wile in the couch, or for a fast search or even for quick email check. It came with Xandros, and I needed a full OS, not a toy. The 1st distro i tried was Easypeasy, a nice Ubuntu remake, but i ran slow in that days. Next it was time to try eeeBuntu, another Ubuntu remake, same problems. And oneday my computer met the speed of light.... #!Crunchbang Linux it's a minimalist Ubuntu remake from scratch. I went with the Lite edition. It is so lite, that after boot, it only takes about 88Mb of ram, and for a machine with 512Mb this is very good... For a common user it is hard to not see nice icons, to make program configuration in text files, but having Ubuntu on build, all is more easy....

       5 - All my other machines are running Ubuntu 9.04 (two dual core laptops), my work laptop, and my personal Laptop that my wife uses.

Follow links to the distro's to find more about those.....

As you can see is very easy to use "refurbish" computer to make something useful. If you need more help in doing something, mail me, and i will post the HowTo in the blog.