Long past it’s prime, it lived in my guest room/office as a “spare computer” for guest to use. Admittedly, a weak excuse to keep it at best since the only thing guest really need is my WiFi password and their phones. Still, it served me well as a machine to “tinker with” either by trying various Linux variants or, at one point, using Erector set parts to install a graphics card never intended for a machine like this. My office/guest room is now just an office and……the time has come……to…to send it to that recycling bin in the great beyond…
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…IT SHALL BE DONE IN THE METHOD OF MY FORE-FATHERS!!! SUDO RM -RF /
[IMAGE DELETED AT AUTHOR’S REQUEST]
Someone on another forum pointed out that it may be possible to obtain a license key by zooming in on the picture of my old PC. While it would be for an old factory-install of Windows 7, I agree that it’s prudent to just delete the image.
I just went through a huge downsizing (from 2500 sqft house to a 634 sqft efficiency) and this necessitated retiring several machines. After a few rounds of unsuccessfully trying to give away old machines (not quite 32-bit era, but close…) I found my local BestBuy was pretty happy to take any of my old machines for recycling.
UPDATE: The “Distro-Tester” has been given a “Stay of Execution”…
LSS - My son needs to get familiar with Ubuntu for work. Apparently, the drones he works with run that. This old PC, along with his Raspberry work gave him, should be fine for giving him something he can use to get familiar with SSH along with basic Ubuntu commands.
And now, the end has finally come. My “Tinker Box”…has died…
Honestly, I thought Gentoo (and my, perhaps, sub-optimal compile settings) was going to be what killed it, but it survived. Everything after that was a “victory lap”.
I think it’s a power supply thing. Maybe I can fix it but, I think it’s time. Maybe I’ll get a Pi 5 if I need something to tinker with. It’s already dismantled and ready to be recycled. At least I don’t have to worry about wiping it. There hasn’t been anything sensitive on it since it had Windows 7 installed; many…many…many, wipes and re-installs ago.
