New Testing Box

[Matriplex]

So I've just received an old Dell laptop with permission to do whatever I like with it. This includes smashing it with a hammer.

It's running Windows XP, but I could just install some *nix system on it. I think it has 2 gigs of RAM (yeah..) and an Intel Core 2 Duo or something along those lines.

What should I do with the box? I have a few ideas but honestly I'm sure some of you have better ideas.

[TheWormKill]

Hi,
I have an old AMD Sempron with a Single-Core around here, running Slackware... works fine.
And I learned a lot about Linux in general messing around with it. So I would do what you thought of,
experiment with that box and have fun ^^. That's the most interesting and "teaching" way, so why not?

Greets

[Phage]

Oh, there are endless possibilities.

• Setup a server
• Setup and experiment the shit out of every Linux distro you feel like trying out.
• Set it up as a second display.
• Share your CPU resources with services like BOINC.
• Add some security to your network and set it up as a firewall.

[Architect]

I would take Phage's idea and set it up as a firewall (or load balancing server).

[lucid]

I say firewall as well. That, or depending on what kind of setup you may already have at home you could do something like put it behind a DMZ with some service like SSH or FTP or a Webserver or whatever, and you know.... break it.

What sort of setup do you already have?

[Matriplex]

Thanks for the ideas, they all sound pretty good.

I may look into the firewall thing as most of you are suggesting it, but before that I was leaning towards the Webserver/SSH/other service that lucid suggested.

To answer his question I have just another laptop, although it's quite a powerful one as well as a seperate monitor for it (that's not really important probably but just in case you wanted to know).