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Honestly, and I am not trying to sound like a fan-boy here, slap linux on it (personal favorite: slackware). Nothing wrong with that, plus you get to learn a new [free] OS. Pick up apache with php_mod and MySQL and run with it. I mean, you had to have SOME idea of what you were going to do with it when you came into possesion. Hell, pick up some ($20) NICs and turn it into your firewall, router, or start learning C or C++ (I wish I had when I was younger)
Honestly, and I am not trying to sound like a fan-boy here, slap linux on it (personal favorite: slackware). Nothing wrong with that, plus you get to learn a new [free] OS. Pick up apache with php_mod and MySQL and run with it. I mean, you had to have SOME idea of what you were going to do with it when you came into possesion. Hell, pick up some ($20) NICs and turn it into your firewall, router, or start learning C or C++ (I wish I had when I was younger)
Why stick with one os on it? That 20Gb drive will hold a few, partition it and pick a few different OSs to try and put them on.
Why not put a linux firewall like smoothwall on one partition and you can use your spare box to protect your main machine when you're not playing with a full OS?
Why stick with one os on it? That 20Gb drive will hold a few, partition it and pick a few different OSs to try and put them on.
Why not put a linux firewall like smoothwall on one partition and you can use your spare box to protect your main machine when you're not playing with a full OS?
*drool* Partitions with variants of Linux.... wha? wha?
Here - to help get your learn on so you can decide what best to do:
http://www.google.com
Partitioning
http://www.ranish.com/part/primer.htm
C/C++ Programming
http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial.html
http://cplus.about.com/od/beginnerct...blcplustut.htm
Linux
http://www.linux-tutorial.info/
http://www.yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/
http://www.linux.org/
http://www.slackware.com/
And as dmorgan stated - the sooner you get started the better - while it may seem you may have a lot of time now, it quickly passes... now get going and learn and do young fleshbag.
*drool* Partitions with variants of Linux.... wha? wha?
Here - to help get your learn on so you can decide what best to do:
http://www.google.com
Partitioning
http://www.ranish.com/part/primer.htm
C/C++ Programming
http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial.html
http://cplus.about.com/od/beginnerct...blcplustut.htm
Linux
http://www.linux-tutorial.info/
http://www.yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/
http://www.linux.org/
http://www.slackware.com/
And as dmorgan stated - the sooner you get started the better - while it may seem you may have a lot of time now, it quickly passes... now get going and learn and do young fleshbag.
Linus os's... I'd suggest Mandrake if you want to buy it, or Ubuntu if you don't.
Tonnes of cool things you can do with it including:
A few simple mods and softwares and you can automate your home using it as the 'master' computer - sense your presence in a room and turn on the lights, or turn 'em off when you leave the room. With the right vid card and software, you can make a 'video server' - store all your dvd collection on it, and access them on demand from any tv in the house. Some vid server softwares even allow for the program to 'follow' you as you move room to room throughout the house. With plumbing mods you can have it control your water heater to only run certain hours of the day (when you're most likely to use hot water), and set your bath/shower water temperature to your preferred degree of heat every time, not only saving you from potential scalding, but also saving you $$ by turning off the largest electricity user of your home.
You can wire cameras to it and use it for a home security system - see who's at the door before you ever answer it, have the computer call the fire department in case of fire, or police in case of emergency if you're unable to do so yourself, or if you aren't home. You can use a solid database program to help you keep track of the groceries in your kitchen, and have the computer automatically order those groceries you're short on from your local grocery store however frequently you choose.
Basically, the sky is the limit. There's a bazillion things you can do with a spare computer other than just making it a file or print server (I use old 286 and 386's for print servers btw).
I know one guy who does web hosting from his house using old computers he acquires through his normal business operations. He's also running a very inexpensive dial-up isp, and hosting 2 different mmporg's all using equipement he got for free.
Your asking us what to use that spare computer for is like someone asking a mechanic what to use that craftsman wrench he found in his toolbox for, or like asking a hunter how he'll use those extra bullets. It's your tool, use it as you see fit :D
Hope that helped at least a little.
Linus os's... I'd suggest Mandrake if you want to buy it, or Ubuntu if you don't.
Tonnes of cool things you can do with it including:
A few simple mods and softwares and you can automate your home using it as the 'master' computer - sense your presence in a room and turn on the lights, or turn 'em off when you leave the room. With the right vid card and software, you can make a 'video server' - store all your dvd collection on it, and access them on demand from any tv in the house. Some vid server softwares even allow for the program to 'follow' you as you move room to room throughout the house. With plumbing mods you can have it control your water heater to only run certain hours of the day (when you're most likely to use hot water), and set your bath/shower water temperature to your preferred degree of heat every time, not only saving you from potential scalding, but also saving you $$ by turning off the largest electricity user of your home.
You can wire cameras to it and use it for a home security system - see who's at the door before you ever answer it, have the computer call the fire department in case of fire, or police in case of emergency if you're unable to do so yourself, or if you aren't home. You can use a solid database program to help you keep track of the groceries in your kitchen, and have the computer automatically order those groceries you're short on from your local grocery store however frequently you choose.
Basically, the sky is the limit. There's a bazillion things you can do with a spare computer other than just making it a file or print server (I use old 286 and 386's for print servers btw).
I know one guy who does web hosting from his house using old computers he acquires through his normal business operations. He's also running a very inexpensive dial-up isp, and hosting 2 different mmporg's all using equipement he got for free.
Your asking us what to use that spare computer for is like someone asking a mechanic what to use that craftsman wrench he found in his toolbox for, or like asking a hunter how he'll use those extra bullets. It's your tool, use it as you see fit :D
Hope that helped at least a little.
I would turn it into a SAN (Storage Area Network) Upgrade the hard drive to 120 GB and slap WIndows XP on it. KVM Switchs will allow you to use the same monitor, keyboard, mouse, and speakers so that you dont have to have all that extra junk on your desk. You wouldnt believe the value of a seperate computer when it comes to storage. That way if your main computer takes a crap you have all your info duplicated on the other machine.
I would turn it into a SAN (Storage Area Network) Upgrade the hard drive to 120 GB and slap WIndows XP on it. KVM Switchs will allow you to use the same monitor, keyboard, mouse, and speakers so that you dont have to have all that extra junk on your desk. You wouldnt believe the value of a seperate computer when it comes to storage. That way if your main computer takes a crap you have all your info duplicated on the other machine.