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Old laptop -> usable thin client.

Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 9:51 pm
by 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 I could never really find any good uses for it as it is so outdated that any practical uses are sqashed by its lack of processing power/memory.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.

=)

Re: Old laptop -> usable thin client.

Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 10:40 pm
by 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!)

Re: Old laptop -> usable thin client.

Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2008 1:01 am
by 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.

Re: Old laptop -> usable thin client.

Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2008 11:09 pm
by 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 :P

Re: Old laptop -> usable thin client.

Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2008 11:55 pm
by 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!)