Over the past few years ive gotten desktops from various smaller thrift stores but not i feel like i have too many and im not sure what to so with them? Do i save them and turn them into a bugger project? Do i make a nas out of one of them? Im stumped theres so many things to do with a pc that i dont know where to start, or if this is even the right place to post in?
I pretty much saved theses from e-waste and scalpers but most of the machines are devices nobody wants or has a issue.
Turn them into a little server that you can host self hostable services on
IMHO fix whatever you can, donate it all locally (HackerSpace, RepairCafe, Linux non-profit, etc) as there are quite a few people dedicated to refurbishing computers for schools, people who need a computer to find work, etc.
Then for the tinkering aspect, keep one, that’s enough.
Honestly even 1 isn’t really required. Pretty much everything listed here can be done more efficiently without an actual physical computer :
- your current computer can be a server, just turn off the screen or even accept (which I’d argue is a fair assumption) that at night it will be off. If you want external access put WireGuard or another VPN on it.
- Want to test distributions or anything else? QEMU or containers, no need for actual hardware
Put Linux on them and give them away to people who need them?
I have some hardware from like 2008 running my entire home’s infrastructure. Jellyfin, Kavita, home automation, etc.
Solar panels and cryptocurency mining
Explain the former
I think they mean use solar to keep the price of the electricity consumption down. It is probably a joke since old gear is going to drink a lot of juice cryptomining.
Go to a local solar shop and give them money.
Cheap Linux desktops for a charity?
First of all: get rid of the broken ones. You’re not doing anything with the running systems, so there’s no need to hang on to the ones that don’t run.
Next, make a list of the things you want to do and start doing them.
If you’re worried about power consumption, don’t be. If you’re still worried about power consumption, get an inline watt meter (a kill-a-watt), take some measurements, do the math and feel at ease. If you don’t feel at ease, look up wake on lan. You can have powered down computers turn back on when they get a packet so you don’t need to worry about power consumption.
When you feel like you’ve done enough stuff, get rid of the computers you’re not using.
Explore weird OSs! I got an old Celeron D workstation just for playing around with weird old operating systems.
Its got a 32 bit bios but 64 bit celeron, so the grub stuff has been fund 😅
I recently turned every old junker and some nicer ones into a Harvester cluster. The really old ones I use as cold storage devices that I actually shut off when I don’t need them.
Install Win7 to make retro gaming machine?
Install Linux to make a retro gaming machine?
You could make a Kubernetes cluster. Otherwise I don’t think running multiple old computer really makes sense.
Turn them into a Kebernetes or a Proxmox cluster.
A lot, depending on your interests and the hardware itself. I’m running a NAS (TrueNAS) on an old machine that also runs a bittorrent client and immich as TrueNAS “apps.” I’m running an *arr stack and jellyfin on another old machine. I’ve got another old machine running an i2p router, hyphanet node, and a few other services. In the past, I’ve used old machines as routers (pfsense), openhab/home assistant machines, game servers, ZoneMinder server, etc.
Some ideas:
- webserver (e.g. for a little personal website, maybe even host some fediverse things)
- irc
- weather monitor
- distro tester
- local LLM ~(they’re getting more and more efficient)~
If you’ve several of similar performance, you could:
- host lan parties, for classic games. Maybe some Quake, OpenTTD, Luanti
weather monitor
I’m intrigued, are there any daemons for this out there that you can recommend? Would be neat.
I’m in a similar boat. I use old computers for spare parts and hobby projects (e.g. I did Linux From Scratch on an old second-hand Thinkpad I picked up on a whim). I think cheap second hand computers are great for tinkerers e.g. you can flash custom firmware without worrying about bricking the mobo.
You could also use them as servers if you have any services you want to host.
Also if you truly have no use for them, fix them up, install something like Linux Mint on them, and give them away.
