Extending The Life Of Your PC
If you have read my post in the past about the true cost of ownership, you’ll know that I’m a firm believer of making my stuff last as long as possible. However, with one caveat. For as long as you can still get the job done on them. If it take forever to make your PC boot, then, the time cost for you is much more than saving a few bucks for it.
But, what happened in the last 2 weeks was, I got wind of a sub notebook for under $400. Being curious, I went for a look. If you don’t know it yet, it is the Asus Eee PC which is a popular gadget today. Basically, it is a relatively cheap laptop that runs all your basic applications and it is based on a Linux OS. Small and cheap enough to do typing, emailing and cheaper than some PDA’s. Well, I did not buy this gadget, (I would have if I did not buy my PDA last year) but it led me to Linux OS, specifically Puppylinux.
What is so special about Puppylinux? It is a very small operating system and will run on an old Pentium with just 128MB of RAM. I’m not sure if you can still find a running PC that old. But I’m pretty sure you have some old PII or PIII around. Now, with computer prices dropping all the time, where is this post heading?
Well, most of us would have parents or kids at home who “also” wants a computer, right. It can be for surfing the net, for parents and older kid, or playing games for younger children. Instead of junking you PC, or donating it, and spend a few hundred buck to get a new PC, you can give it a new lease of life by installing a different OS on it.
I’ve tried Ubuntu in the past it is still a bit big. For very basic needs, PuppyLinux can do the job. It even runs without a hard drive. Boot it into memory from a LiveCD that you can download and you are off. I’m typing this post using PuppyLinux, since I managed to dual boot my Vista laptop. It took me sometime since I did not want to kill my one and only work machine, but if you have an old PC, I’m pretty sure setting it up will be faster.
Back to the Eee PC. I took a look at this laptop companion at the nearby computer retail shop. Apparently, these little fella are flying of the shelf. Asus have a hit on their hands and other computer makers are jumping onto the bandwagon. It just made me think. A lot of the stuff on our computer that we have, we don’t really need. Sure, when I bought my laptop last year, I wanted something to last me a few years. So, I have my dual core machine etc.
I also remembered several years ago when we went shopping for a new microwave oven, (we already have a full size oven) I thought of getting just the one with microwave functions rather than a full fledge microwave will bells and whistles. I have to say, most of the time, we use it to reheat food. The normal heating is into semi retirement! Perhaps, going back to basics is all we need.
By the way, PuppyLinux is free. You don’t have think about getting a licensed copy etc. So if you can get your hands on an old computer, go grab it. It’ll save you more than a few bucks I think.
Oh, if you like a small “disposable” laptop, consider the Eee PC
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