Comments on: Howto: Find an old computer http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2010/10/30/howto-find-an-old-computer/ K.Mandla's blog of Linux experiences Mon, 11 Feb 2013 18:19:59 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Need a Distribution to run on 32mb RAM, Pentium MMX & Edimax EW-7711UTn http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2010/10/30/howto-find-an-old-computer/#comment-47401 Tue, 28 Dec 2010 15:17:12 +0000 http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2010/10/30/howto-find-an-old-computer/#comment-47401 [...] You are looking at many hours of frustration trying to have a pleasant Linux experience on such outdated hardware. I recommend Craigslist, thrift stores, friends/family, etc. and trying to find at least a Pentium 4 with 512mb ram, the minimum specs for a beginner-friendly distro like Ubuntu, Mint, etc. You shouldn't have to spend more than $100 and I bet you can find one for free if you look hard enough. Here is a great article on the topic: http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2010/10…-old-computer/ [...]

]]> By: The sub-$100 mighty mongrel machine « Motho ke motho ka botho http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2010/10/30/howto-find-an-old-computer/#comment-46319 Wed, 10 Nov 2010 13:44:44 +0000 http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2010/10/30/howto-find-an-old-computer/#comment-46319 [...] However you get it, it shouldn’t take more than US$10 to find one in decent working order. If you can, get one with about 32Mb or more of memory, and a processor that runs at around 100Mhz or more. Specs of that magnitude are like saying, “Find yourself a car with four wheels on it.” [...]

]]> By: johnraff http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2010/10/30/howto-find-an-old-computer/#comment-46292 Tue, 09 Nov 2010 05:11:33 +0000 http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2010/10/30/howto-find-an-old-computer/#comment-46292 Of course everything’s relative, but there are some quite poor people in Japan these days. Some of those homeless were employed in regular jobs not long ago. Like everywhere, the gap is widening.

]]> By: johnraff http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2010/10/30/howto-find-an-old-computer/#comment-46291 Tue, 09 Nov 2010 05:07:47 +0000 http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2010/10/30/howto-find-an-old-computer/#comment-46291 …and, of course, none taken :)

Keep up the good work, and don’t let those odd looks put you off!

]]> By: Dmitry http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2010/10/30/howto-find-an-old-computer/#comment-46249 Thu, 04 Nov 2010 17:17:33 +0000 http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2010/10/30/howto-find-an-old-computer/#comment-46249 Maybe my suggestion looks funny or odd enough, but why not looking at your own stuff in the first place? You already might have old PC / laptop which require some upgrade. It can cost you less than buying “new” used computer.

]]> By: steve http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2010/10/30/howto-find-an-old-computer/#comment-46241 Thu, 04 Nov 2010 00:51:12 +0000 http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2010/10/30/howto-find-an-old-computer/#comment-46241 Are there any truley poor people in Japan? Even the homeless in Tokyo looked in better shape than their 3rd world counterparts.

As for hardware, from my assessment the Japanese hardware market is about 2 years ahead of the rest of the world well New Zealand anyways ;)

]]> By: computer recycling and disposal http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2010/10/30/howto-find-an-old-computer/#comment-46233 Wed, 03 Nov 2010 14:38:11 +0000 http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2010/10/30/howto-find-an-old-computer/#comment-46233 Perhaps Japan needs a recycling company like ours – if there is no demand for the redundant IT equipment in Japan it can always be shipped to a nearby country where they would be welcomed for reuse.

]]> By: K.Mandla http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2010/10/30/howto-find-an-old-computer/#comment-46228 Wed, 03 Nov 2010 12:38:19 +0000 http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2010/10/30/howto-find-an-old-computer/#comment-46228 I hope my comment wasn’t misconstrued. It’s probably true though; I live in a more affluent area and that might account for the odd looks I get when I mention shopping at recycle shops.

No offense intended, of course. :oops:

]]> By: johnraff http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2010/10/30/howto-find-an-old-computer/#comment-46225 Wed, 03 Nov 2010 04:06:30 +0000 http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2010/10/30/howto-find-an-old-computer/#comment-46225 “So recycle shops and secondhand stores are a fairly strong business here, even if they don’t enjoy much popularity among the Japanese people I know.” Are you suggesting these shops keep going purely on the basis of K Mandla’s purchases? :)

Sure, Japanese like new things but these days times are hard and plenty of people buy stuff at those shops. Maybe you only know rich Japanese?

]]> By: bpalone http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2010/10/30/howto-find-an-old-computer/#comment-46193 Sat, 30 Oct 2010 05:57:39 +0000 http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2010/10/30/howto-find-an-old-computer/#comment-46193 Ebay is OK, but be careful. I recently purchased an old Compaq 1600 Xl for a little over $50 (U.S) to the door. It was bought to scavenge for parts, but when I got it, it was in pretty decent shape and worked fine. So….I didn’t have the heart to take the knife to it. Instead, I spent another $10 to max out the memory and then had to buy a fan, as the one in it wasn’t working. Ended up with a little over $70 bucks in it and couldn’t be happier.

It is currently dual booting 98se and GALPon. It started out to be an entertainment computer to take with me when I’m out of town working. But, then I got to thinking that all the software I use was written for 9x (the Windoze software I can’t replace) and got to thinking why not set up for emergency backup if my main laptop takes a dive. Then, I really got thinking that I should find a light Linux distro to keep me safer with it on the net. Besides, I prefer Linux over Windoze, but they are just OSes.

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