Great Uses For Your Old Computer

 

Now That Santa Brought You a New PC: Here Are Some Great Uses for Your Old Computer

Ok, so you got that brand new hottest fastest computer you were so hoping Santa would bring. You have unplugged your old machine and setup the new one in its place and you are good to go. Now what? Are you going to just throw away your old machine after all you two have been through together? I hope not. In fact here are some great ideas to get new uses out of your old machine, instead of sending it packing like guest who has long overstayed their welcome.

Use your old machine as a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device: Lots of people pay good money for a NAS device to have files available to everyone on their network. FreeNAS is a small lightweight program that is easy to install and can turn just about any old PC with available storage into a, No investment required, Network Attached Storage device.

Make a Media Server: Most of the LCD TVs on the market today come with some type of input that can connect your PC directly to your TV. You can serve up images or even movies from your PC to your TV directly using one of several media serving programs. One Program that can make this easy is XBMC:Kodi, which is formally known as the Xbox Media center. This is a feature rich media center available on all operating systems that is easy to install and to use.

During the holiday season I have one final suggestion for that old PC: Install linux and make it a guest computer: This is really easy to do and sometimes you don’t even have to install anything new on your machine most versions of linux allow you the option to install linux or just run the operating system from a live cd. My two favorite versions of the many linux choices out there are Ubuntu & Linux Mint due to the programs built in and the ease of use. Both of these distributions of linux are lightweight and run great on older hardware. The good thing about making an old PC into a guest computer running linux is that guest can have access to the internet, email and several programs without risking any of the computers that you use every day.

Great Uses For Your Old Computer