Old laptop -> usable thin client.

[01000101]

I have an old Compaq Presario 'internet zone' 1700 laptop. It has a 300mhz P3 processor with 64 megs of RAM installed. I could never really find any good uses for it as it is so outdated that any practical uses are sqashed by its lack of processing power/memory.

Today I decided to turn this old laptop with the "Designed for Windows 98" sticker on it, into a thin client of sorts. Basically, I uninstalled all the non-essential programs and stripped down all the extra windows components until it was relatively speedy. Then I grabbed PUTTY and RealVNC, turned on my Ubuntu workstation's remote login and setup VNC over SSH. Now I'm able to take this old laptop just about anywhere with internet access, remote in, and begin programming away. I've always wanted a laptop for web development haha.

=)

[Troy Martin]

Nice!

I think I'm going to download some more of my tools onto my Toshiba Satellite 4010CDT with the 266 MHz PII and 64 MB of memory and Win98SE

Now, of course, I need to use someone's wireless internet (shouldn't be too hard, mah neighbours have no idea what WEP and WPA are!)

[01000101]

I plan on using this primarily in Cafe's and parks. So WiFi is plentiful in those lounge areas.

You could pick up a cheap linksys router for < $100.

[chezzestix]

Nice use! Shame I cant host in these dorms, that would give me a reason to have a laptop. Then again I would't hear anything the teacher said

[Troy Martin]

My current setup of old laptop-ness:

Toshiba Satellite 4010CDT
- Pentium II 266 MHz
- 64 MB RAM
- Some trivial (probably Cirrus Logic) video card, 800x600x24
- Windows 98 SE on a 6 GB hard drive

Compilers/Tools
- Dev-C++ for ordinary C programming
- Win98-compatible 802.11g PC Card and software
- Misc. network/admin tools
- HxD Hex and Disk editor (also edits crap in RAM too!)