What do you do with a garage full of old computers? With the rapid addition of new features to user applications and operating systems, it generally doesn't take too long for your hot new computer to become yesterday's news. Whether it's technological breakthroughs or planned obsolescence, your hardware just may not cut the mustard with today's latest and greatest tools. It seems a shame to just throw this stuff out—in an ecologically-responsible way, of course—when there are still a lot of clock cycles left in them.
One way to recycle old computers is to use them as servers for various low-overhead Linux or other *NIX platforms. Whether it's as a NAT router and firewall, a web- or mail server, an FTP platform, or any of dozens of other uses, your old system probably still has the horsepower to be used in ways that do enhance your productivity.
FREESCO is an open source solution that lets you bring your old box back to life. Computers with a little as a '486 processor and 12MB of RAM can be used to run a router for your broadband or dial-up connection, a nameserver, SSH server, print server, and more. It supports up to ten network cards, so you can build a pretty complex network here. You can run it from a floppy, a RAM disk, or install it to your hard drive.
FREESCO is a free download.
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