By Hoo Ann
With the rapid change of technology nowadays, computers become obsolete very fast. The latest versions of Windows and Mac are now incompatible with outdated computers. But with Linux, which is well known for running very well on old hardware, you still can utilize your outdated computer for many things. In this article, I will show you some tips to keep your old computers useful with the help of Linux.
Use the old box as a torrent downloading tool
If you use your new computer mainly for work and entertainment, you will probably have no time to manage all your torrent downloads. Fortunately, many Linux distributions come with a torrent client pre-installed by default. Therefore you just need to install a Linux distribution to your old computer and run it as a full time torrent downloading box. Since all the torrent clients consume very little hardware resource, your old computer will perform this task very well.
Print server
If you have a printer at home or office, it is not a bad idea to turn your old computer into a print server. In the past, Linux used to have many problems with printers but nowadays, everything works nicely out of the box. You can then use the Linux computer to handle all your printing jobs regardless of the fact that other computers in your house might be running other operating system like Windows or Mac.
Media server
If you have a huge collection of music, videos and TV shows stored in one of your computer and you want to share them with the rest of the family. You can install a Linux distribution on your old computer and store all the media files in there then you can share those files with the rest of the devices in your house using a simple Linux setup. Although your computer may be very old, it is not that bad to give it a large capacity hard disk to store files as a server.
Use it as a firewall
Network security is a very important issue nowadays. If there are more than one computer in your house, it is always a good idea to build up a firewall. A firewall is like the security guard at your gate by keeping a watch on everyone who goes in and out. Linux can be used in this case to turn your old machine into a watchful firewall device. All you need to do is to install a firewall Linux distribution then set up the firewall. All the firewalls need very little resource so they will run smoothly on your old computer.
Linux is a very interesting operating system and it has become a technology trend today. To know more about Linux and Ubuntu, check my blog about Linux tips and tricks, you will find many useful tutorials, tips and reviews there.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Hoo_Ann
Most of the latest linux distros are incompatible with old hardware. The applets that formerly guided users to the configuration of Xorg.conf have completely disappeared. Moreover the latest Xdrivers require informations from display devices that oldest monitors (CRT in particular) cannot feed back. Smbclient has been deprecated and so has “share” class of network sharing. Most of the documentation is obsolete and not updated. Sources lack of comments and are dispersed to impair most developers from tampering with. Linux, is playng the game of “run-and-catch-me” with windows. He has really almost caught M$ but has taken the disease of: “Users are stupid and must be taken care of despite themselves”. It is going to become just another commercial system.
BSD is going to run after Linux.
Sad times are coming.