I have two machines:

  • 2014 Mac Mini
  • HP Pavilion g7

Mac Mini 2014:

Very slow, probably can no longer be updated, nor can it run worthwhile programs.

HP Pavilion g7

Extremely bulky, chunky, and doesn’t even turn on unless it’s plugged in. It’s basically a desktop since the battery doesn’t hold a charge.

I put Linux on it (Mint I think) a few months ago as a weekend experiment.

Question:

What should I do with them? Are they worth salvaging? Should I simply donate or recycle them?

I was thinking I could use at least one of them as a home media server or something so that I can disconnect my Smart TV from the internet, but I’m not sure if they will hold or how I would even control them from my phone (Android) if I’m sitting on the couch.

Open to all ideas. I’m somewhat technical (perhaps far less than the Lemmy community), but I don’t know much about Linux or the command line unless I’m given step by step instructions on how to do something.

  • Skunk@jlai.lu
    5·
    17 hours ago

    You already answered yourself, use them as your [email protected]

    You can start with an OS like YunoHost if you don’t feel comfortable. Next step, to mee, would be an immutable Linux docker machine with podman.

    But YunoHost is already a good start and you can have a multimedia server, nextcloud or anything else (example, paperless ngx to scan, organize and store your important documents with OCR to search them)