What are some fun or unconventional uses for an old Atom notebook with 2GB RAM?
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@monovergent I've always wanted to get something like this and just make it boot up to a full screen asciiquarium. Lol
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Could use it kind of like an extra monitor with something like Barrier.
Could use it like a home assistant for a kitchen or something, but I don't know if there's any good privacy respecting software for that ATM (looks like MyCroft went bankrupt).
I used an old laptop I had laying around for controlling a Maslow CNC. Could also use a laptop to run OctoPrint or something.
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If it has an ethernet port (or perhaps a USB to ethernet dongle), maybe a PiHole DNS using Debian or the like? It is apparently supported on other Linux distros than Raspbian.
If it supports micro SD XC (i.e. capacities higher than 32GB) or you have a USB hard drive or high capacity USB flash drive, maybe a samba server for file storage? I often use my file server as a substitute for digging out a flash drive any time I want to quickly pass a file between two machines in my house.
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Batocera linux and retro games!
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Host a Lemmy server
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If it’s an asus ee, the vents are all on the sides. With a couple of shims underneath it would fit in a bookshelf with a bunch of other books.
As far as uses… nat hole punching for an overlay network is one way I’ve used these devices before.
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sh.itjust.breaks
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Try to flash Coreboot on it.
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Server for various open source games that don't require much cpu or ram. E.g. freeciv, battle for wesnoth.
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Swap in a new display controller board, get a cheap Bluetooth keyboard and wire the eee PC (maybe?) to the controller board. Then, remove the internal board and drive to make space for an old Android phone on which you can install a Linux distro.
Voila! A "laptop" that you can upgrade whenever you get a new phone or if someone donates a phone to you.
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See if it runs either Menuet OS or Kolibri OS, they're about the smallest non-linux OSs I know of.
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to play with, sure. but in the case of a backup machine, you want something reliable, rock-solid, low maintenance and easy to use, which is why I recommended debian
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You could turn it into a Home Assistant control panel
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I recently discovered kmscon: a hardware accelerated utf-8 & emoji capable replacement for the sandard Linux console. Put that on.
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Bad idea, they struggle with YouTube or any video because they don't have hardware decoders for AVC/HEVC.
Maybe can decode by software, something easy on CPU (MPEG1 maybe), and the conversion is done by other machine.
Maybe audio?
Reference: I have one of those Atom netbooks.
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- SliTaz is fun to play and very small.
- Puppy Linux is very capable and there are Debian variants.
