WAA: What to do with the old PC?

[emerys]

Hello Windows Addicts Annonymous,
I'm on my third week of being Windows sober. Thank you, I'm very happy myself. It feels good to have switched to a white macbook. I've have been an addict for about 10 years. I'm sixteen now and the iPod helped me to see how much better my life could be without Windows.

The question I wanted to ask the group at this month's meeting is what should I do with my old Windows laptop?

Thank you all for being so supportive and hearing what you have to say here before I made made the decision to stop using, was very helpful and informative.

An Apple a Day Keeps the Worms Away,

Daniel

 

[jerseyjim]

your old laptop, throw it out

 

[Cassifire]

Honestly, if you don't have another computer, use it as a backup, just in case your Mac has to be sent in or something.

Or sell it. Even if it is a Wintop™, you can't just throw it out.

 

[TheCustomer99]

I agree, don't throw it out. No sense in wasting it. You could donate it somewhere or put it on eBay.

 

[Cherokee]

Are there any tables with uneven legs in your house?

 

[cwa107]

Sounds like a job for eBay.....

 

[ste6168]

i would probably use it as a media center, store music/tv shows/movies/podcasts/ etc on it and share via iTunes sharing to save your macbook hdd for really important stuff (school work, business work, etc)

 

[fleurya]

I agree with the last post. Using it as a media center device would be great. Apple doesn't have anything that comes close to Windows Media Center. You can load in your favorite movies, record TV, play music, whatever.

 

[nukemm]

My wife uses my old Windows laptop to tote back & forth for college. It works out great because the school is just a few minutes from my parents' house, so she can stop in and do her homework there instead of having to drive the 15 minutes out of town to get back home. Windows laptops save on gas.

 

[baggss]

Keep it as a spare or donate it to a local charity, school or church.

 

[coach_z]

use it as a server
or a folding rig.
donate it to those who cant afford a computer
RECYCLE it, dont throw it away
give it to a friend with a young child who could learn on it as a first computer
-chris

 

[iKitten]

I have given away two previous old laptops to friends who just couldn't afford to buy a computer of any sort. I recommend it!

 

[MaDDoG]

Keep it as a spare or donate it to a local charity, school or church.

I agree with Baggss....great idea.

 

[munna]

Are there any tables with uneven legs in your house?

Lol that's an idea
But seriously, keep it for a backup harddrive.

 

[Tak]

The question I wanted to ask the group at this month's meeting is what should I do with my old Windows laptop?

Run Ubuntu!

Thats what I did with mine, its now a nice backup computer should the Mac have issues. And when I have company stay over they don't have to go without web access!

Ubuntu gives new life to old pcs, so good it can be ALMOST as good as a Mac. If you don't need it at all, Ubuntu it anyway and give it to a friend with no laptop at all.

Just don't release it back into the wild till you remove the XP virus.

 

[joshed_240sx]

Run Ubuntu!

Thats what I did with mine, its now a nice backup computer should the Mac have issues. And when I have company stay over they don't have to go without web access!

Ubuntu gives new life to old pcs, so good it can be ALMOST as good as a Mac. If you don't need it at all, Ubuntu it anyway and give it to a friend with no laptop at all.

Just don't release it back into the wild till you remove the XP virus.

Agreed, thats what i did with my old gateway desktop!

 

[walkerj]

My old PC is in a closet, gutted of parts to be dispatched elsewhere someday (probably when we move next.) My wife's old PC is sitting under my work desk ready to step in if the employer supplied Dell explodes or something (though, truth be told my Macbook can step in with Parallels to do that; her old PC is one I built out of parts with an AMD processor and thus is LOUD when it's running...I really like quiet computing here in The Future.)

I have a REALLY OLD Dell PC which is acting as the television in my home office with a TV card. That's all it does; it isn't even connected to the internet. It is connected to a DirecTivo and with its 20" CRT it makes a fine television set. It also used to work as my office DVD player but I did something with the screen resolution that rendered DVD playback choppy and unwatchable, so now I just watch DVDs on my Macbook.

The other question is what to do with my old Macs? We each have, well, had PPC Mac Minis. Mine was shipped off to my parents to convert them to the light side. Her Mini is sitting on top of our entertainment center hooked up to my 37" HDTV and when I get around to hooking that up to the surround receiver I'll use it to watch movies. Otherwise it's on standby as a backup Mac if anything befalls my Macbook and I have to invoke AppleCare.

 

[jaster]

Related question, I have an old HP desktop in the garage circa 2000 or so. Would I be able to yank the h-d out of it and use it as an external drive for my macbook? I also just ordered that ubuntu thing for an old gateway laptop I also have in the garage. The hd on it is wiped so i have to order the ubuntu disks for it, but that was a good idea, I am gonna give it a try.

 

[fleurya]

Related question, I have an old HP desktop in the garage circa 2000 or so. Would I be able to yank the h-d out of it and use it as an external drive for my macbook? I also just ordered that ubuntu thing for an old gateway laptop I also have in the garage. The hd on it is wiped so i have to order the ubuntu disks for it, but that was a good idea, I am gonna give it a try.

Definitely, just buy a cheap enclosure, plug in the drive, format and go!