this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2025
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libre

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Old Computer Ideas (hexbear.net)
submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by RedRook1917@hexbear.net to c/libre@hexbear.net
 

I have been gifted a few ancient laptops from the stone age (2005-2014). Any ideas on what I can do with them? Are there any modern Linux distros that would run on old hardware like this? I'll take any suggestions this wonderful community has to offer.

Edit: The laptops are:

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[–] daniyeg@hexbear.net 8 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I have been gifted a few ancient laptops from the stone age

oh so laptops from 1990s? cool i love to have one actually

(2005-2014).

excuse me? what? 2014 is ancient? fr? am i this out of touch?

(im not old, new technology pricing is just too much for me. im still stuck in 2016 hardware wise).

[–] AssortedBiscuits@hexbear.net 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Me crumbling to old person dust when a gen alpha calls Windows 8 an ancient OS.

[–] RedRook1917@hexbear.net 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

My bad I didn't mean for people to catch strays lol. I'm 'old' relatively speaking age wise. I just meant how tech older than 5 years is considered old. I could go on a rant on how wasteful and stupid that concept is but unfortunately its the way of the world today.

[–] AssortedBiscuits@hexbear.net 3 points 3 days ago

Nah, you're good. Oldest PCs I still have are a bunch of beige boxes with Windows 2000 still on them and an Inspiron 9400 with Windows 7.

[–] echolalia@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Right? These laptops dont even have floppy drives.

[–] daniyeg@hexbear.net 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

our computer still had a floppy drive until around 2016 i think. good times. unfortunately everything we had on floppy was for DOS not windows xp and i was just a kid so i didn't know how to get DOS working.