on Fri, Apr 05, 2002, Mirek Dobsicek (m.dobsicek@sh.cvut.cz) wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I have few question. Most of time I'm at college and twice a months
> I go home for a weekend. I dont have computer at home, and sometimes
> I need to continue at my work (coding and writing articles in VIM).
>
> I'd like to buy some old notebook and install Debian on in.
> Right now I can buy i486 at 66Mhz, 8MB RAM, 500MB HDD
> for $10 US dolars.
>
> Is it good idea to try install Debian on it? Is it possible with 8MB of RAM?
You've updated the price to US$100. $10 would be a fair value for the
system. $100 is wildly overpriced. I've had systems like this given to
me, and they're barely worth the hassles they provide.
I'm currently playing with some older hardware and have Debian installed
on:
- Thinkpad P-133 64 MiB 2GB: networking is borked, Debian
half-installed, no data. Hardware's nice. BIOS config is Legacy MS
Windows only.
- P-166 64 MiB 4GiB: works well as an emergency graphics terminal at
the colo. Tends to run unattended, which it won't do without
powering down after a time.
- Hitachi 486 DX 66MHz 12 MiB 500 MiB: staggers along. It's cute,
and works reasonably well as a console-only system. With 12 MiB
free RAM, it can't run an apt-get dist-upgrade without segfaulting.
I'd push for 16 MiB minimum, 32-64 MiB far preferred. Note that old
laptop memory may be available, but it's not terribly cheap. Runs
lid-down w/o hibernating.
For the price you're looking at, you should be able to get a PII laptop
system minimum. Better might be to cobble together a desktop system --
for $100 you're looking at a PII/III 200 - 400 MHz system, 96-128 MiB
RAM, 6-10 GiB HD, working graphics, sound, network, and modem, and a
decent, if used, 15"-17" monitor. Many companies are throwing things
like this out -- get creative.
For older notebooks/laptops, the main problem is nonstandard components
and configurations -- BIOS access (often only through Legacy MS Windows
utilities), memory, CPU, sometimes power ports and the like. Newer
hardware, say the last couple of years, is rather more standard.
That said, a second-hand IBM Thinkpad could be a dream -- damned solid
systems.
Peace.
--
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