[kwlug-disc] Computer Recycling -- Laptop Repair Question.

[B. S.]

Problem appears to be, from what I can tell, that Working Centre is looking to sell such (even if only a nominal charge), and the hobbyists that would only be interested in such hardware, or uses as you suggest, don't plentifully walk into Computer Recycling. Use even for kids or teenagers seems problematic, given the low power hardware.

Would appreciate being corrected if I'm misunderstanding things.

For me, every new device is yet another device to maintain, let alone electrical source, physical location, power brick space (surge & UPSed). If I can graft something like XBMC into something I already have, including on the computer already connected to the TV, I'm going to do that rather than go back to old hardware and the unfamiliar different/lighter distros. Some have noted, for example, easier to go to Apple TV / black box /  purchased turnkey solution than respend the time sinking into MythTV and its issues (again).

The same hardware argument you make can be made for a front end firewall / ipsense / whatever, or openwrt. Played with openwrt some years back, and haven't looked at it since. Sinking back into it would be like MythTV above. I'm more likely to purchase an additional cheap router, or graft on to a current computer, or vm, than look for smaller (R Pi) or older hardware, than go back into OpenWRT.


--------------------------------------------
On Mon, 6/8/15, Joe Wennechuk <youcanreachmehere at hotmail.com> wrote:

 Subject: [kwlug-disc] Computer Recycling -- Laptop Repair Question.
 To: "kwlug-disc at kwlug.org" <kwlug-disc at kwlug.org>
 Received: Monday, June 8, 2015, 5:04 PM
 
 
 
 
 Charles.
 is re-purposing the donated laptops an option? I
 am using an old laptop with a broken screen/keyboard as an
 XBMC server (I also have LAMP running on it for dev fun)
 and, It works great! I was going to get a raspberry-PI like
 many of my friends, but, I just happened to have this old
 laptop with a broken
 screen/battery laying
 around,  (screen/battery replacement cost
 astronomical), so I used it as an XBMC machine
 instead.
  I know that there have been efforts to get
 the laptops running again, but could they be re-purposed all
 together? Some may want the raspberry-PI/ XBMC setup; but,
 if an old broken down laptop with similar capabilities could
 be acquired for equal or lower cost; (missing
 battery/screen/keyboard on a laptop usually means heading to
 the landfill; )could they still be useful? Maybe there are
 other uses for the laptops other than laptop? What are some
 other uses that a laptop could be re-purposed for? 		
 	   		  
 
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