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Follow general lemmy guidelines.
Sounds like a good way to make use of old eMachines, at a large discount too.
Finally, the year of the Linux Desktop! (eMachine edition)
2gb of ram really isn't enough
At least give them something usable. I see a lot of 6th gen machines on the market and they can be loaded with 8/16gb of ram.
When quarantines hit and everyone was communicating via zoom, I offered to recycle people's computers and destroy their old hard drives for free. I'd remove and drill multiple holes through the hard drives, vacuum/dust the computer, install a small, inexpensive HDD, and install Ubuntu.
Then I'd install zoom and chrome (sorry) and then pair each computer with a wired mouse, keyboard, and webcam that I had laying around in bulk. Then I'd drop these computers off at shelters, elder communities, and religious institutions. Essentially, anywhere you'd find someone who didn't have the means to contact family, attend an interview, or whatever.
Recycling/upcycling old computers isn't just good for the environment and your investment, it's good for your community!
You’re doing the lord’s work, fartographer
Eh, I didn't have much else going on and playing Jackbox remotely with my family made me realize how much others were possibly missing out. I don't even know if or how those computers were used. I just had a lot of time on my hands and an urge to use my then-new drill. Then, I'd move the equipment out before my wife killed me and then let literally anyone else handle the logistics.
Prior to the pandemic, I'd take 20+ year-old laptops and other equipment to a friend's ranch and we'd shoot shit. One time, I peppered myself with glass from a CRT after shooting it from a few feet away with a 16 ga.
I'm not directed by charity, I'm just wildly impulsive and occasionally productive.
Then I'd install zoom and chrome (sorry)
You monster...
Chaotic good
"Ewww, Ubuntu? Honey, don't touch it. We're an Arch family."
-No one ever
I'm all about upcycling PCs with Linux, but I think selling a PC with 2GB RAM is going to make Linux look bad. It's gonna handle its resources better than windows, but 2GB is just too little for today's standards. It will not run well.
edit:considering this is 10 years old judging by the versions used, back then it would have been okayish, I have a convertible from that time with the same specs but it just can't keep up anymore.
Combine that will a failing hard drive and you have a train wreck
Ubuntu 16.04? Was this photo taken 8-9 years ago?
idk if it’s that old but it’s certainly not recent, ive seen this photo floating around for years
Idk what year that pic was taken, but 2GB of ram is useless no matter what operating system you put on it.
Except ofc for a home nas, but as a desktop, the user is going to open Firefox, try to open a website, it will take minutes to load and the user just wasted $20
MS-DOS
More importantly the GPU is going to be unable to process modern graphics which means it will fall to the CPU. The desktop will be very slow and potentially unstable.
2GB of ram is useless no matter what operating system you put on it.
Ubuntu 16.04
This is an old photo
2 gigs of ram is going to be incredibly rough in 2025. Linux is better on old hardware but those specs are pretty optimistic.
But they put Ubuntu on it
Dude, a single chrome take is going to nom the fuck out of 2gigs.
That's correct, but you can use such low end device as your home server with services like PiHole/AdGuardHome, Invidious, Vaultwarden.
One of my low end home lab server is running invidious (YouTube front-end) on Ubuntu server 24 and just using about 900 MB RAM.
I was able to get Windows 11 to run on a 10 year old laptop through Proxmox. With 3 other Linux OSs running at the same time. With almost no issues. The Win11 system requirements are made up. It’s a way to sell more computers, that’s it. Line go up is all it is.
This is exactly how I got into Linux .
Had some... Life troubles.
Started over.
Needed computer.
Local community employment/outreach/social support place had a volunteer run computer place in the basement (they also had a bike place, and a cafe or two, and some apartments, and they were the best community org ever..).
100$
I bought 2 over a couple years.
I'm pretty sure they had xubuntu.
Over 10 years later I still have both. And I just put mint 23xfce on one and use it as my living room media player - dvi to HDMI projector.
I have no need for a lot of stuff. I make work what I can. And I keep it working as long as I can however I can.
Love the “Installed and tested by Tim G.”
Hey bro you got Tim G. PC too?
Thanks Tim!
$20 is one hell of a price, considering how much time must have gone into this machine!
That depends on their setup.
Taking donated PCs to save them from e-waste. Hooking it up to a large KVM and running hardware diags then a image script to load OS, software and quick check for drivers and functionality...
Maybe 15-30 min labor if you're efficient and doing them in bulk.
... Yeah still a good deal haha.
I used to do this kind of work. With a wall of monitors mounted and PCs below. It was pretty chill and just needed to poke one when needed.
make use of old eMachines
eMachines was a brand of economical personal computers. In 2004, it was acquired by Gateway, Inc., which was in turn acquired by Acer Inc. in 2007. The eMachines brand was discontinued in 2013.
That's probably okay if all you want to do is browse the web.
But with an Intel celeron you're not going to get very far even if you do have a more efficient operating system.
Oof, the web isn't as light as it used to be. Some websites won't even OPEN now with <2GB of RAM. Yes, it is that sloppy.
It's a 20$ PC. Fair enough, I say.
Not really as you can get quite a lot for not much money
*Browse Wikipedia
My husband says eMachines have a pretty common capacitor problem. It's an easy fix to remove and replace for people who know how.
Before selling, the capacitors should be visually checked, at minimum, because they can leak and that's no good.
It isn't limited to just eMachines
Most of the Windows XP age hardware I've seen in the last few years as been dead due to capacitor failure.