Frugal Computing

[FrugalNYC]

A very simple way to save on your computing needs is to an old computer or a friend's old computer and repurpose it for a specialized task. Instead of filling the landfills, reuse and old pc. There are Linux OS distributions for just about any level of computing experience. How many of you out there use older pcs? How many use alternative OSs like Linux or BSD?

[lucille]

Ours are all used or really old. If you have a standard sized computer case with fairly standard components you can upgrade them pretty much forever.

[Looby]

My partner built our desktop from scratch and it runs Linux. Our frugal computing habits ended there as we both own Mac laptops though. He does reuse computer components as much as he can, and in the past I have given an old laptop to a computer repair store who were able to salvage parts and use the casing again.

[FrugalNYC]

@Lucille, true, but it might be more economical to purchase a whole system depending on how old your original system is. If you're replacing piece by piece at different points, I definitely agree with that.

@Looby. I think people who run linux tend to like to tinker with hardware and software more than others. I definitely tinker with software, not as much hardware, but I do that as well.

[wildgift]

I'm on a Linux laptop right now, and that's my primary machine. It's a P4 mobile. My OS is Gentoo.

I've had a few Linux desktops before. Some form of Linux has been my primary operating system since 2002 or so. At work, I've used Windows and Mac OS lately.

It helps that most of my work has been involved with the web in some way, and Linux is a great fit. Lately, though, I've been doing more Windows work, and administering Windows systems. I'm not too enthused about that, but Windows is everywhere. It's often a big waste of money, but, Windows makes it easy for the less-skilled to operate fairly large computer networks. My main gripes with Windows are that it tends to waste my time and makes me kind of stupid.

[hermione]

I bought a Dell PC in April 2007 that runs Windows XP. It was a bit of emergency because our old eMachine that we bought in 2001 broke and we live in a desert town where there aren't any repair people and we have an online business. Our old eMachine is now at my cousin's house; he's a techie so he's going to see if he can fix it for us so we can have a backup computer.

He lent me a laptop that has both Linux (Ubuntu) and XP. I use Linux to do stuff online on it because there are less virus risks with Linux.

My cousin also sent me an Ubuntu CD last year when Windows broke after an automatic update so I could still use the computer. I was able to get online, look up the problem with my Windows and figure out how to fix it.

You can download or request a free copy of the Ubuntu operating system to try or use on your own computer. It's completely free and you're allowed to share it with friends and family. Even if you mainly use Windows, it's a great backup to have for when Windows acts up. There's a way to set your computer up for dual boot so you can have both, or you can just run Ubuntu off the CD without installing it.

[FrugalNYC]

@hermione, I totally agree about ubuntu and other such linux live CDs. They can be a life saver. I wrote a post about alternative linux distros, which are mainly live CDs for those with lesser machine specs. Ubuntu is the latest and most user friendly that I've seen yet, though I do prefer Linux Mint. You can see my post about the others I recommend here http://frugalnyc.blogspot.com/2008/1...x-distros.html

[rabidpotatochip]

I have an old laptop (PIII) that runs Ubuntu and with every release of Wine I try to see if I can get my company's accounting software running on it so we don't have to pay for Windows licenses. I found there's a certain danger in keeping old systems just because they might be useful though. I was cleaning out the office, the guest room, the garage, etc and ended up with enough parts for three working systems and a server sans hard drives that used to be in a hospital. Now three people I know have older (and free) systems running Ubuntu.

Another good trick for frugal computing is to check out OpenOffice. You can save a few hunded dollars on Microsoft Office licenses and the learning curve isn't too steep relative to MS Office.

[hermione]

Originally Posted by rabidpotatochip

Another good trick for frugal computing is to check out OpenOffice. You can save a few hunded dollars on Microsoft Office licenses and the learning curve isn't too steep relative to MS Office.

I wrote this post on free software way back in February when I first started my blog:
Save Hundreds of Dollars with Open Source Software

And this one I wrote over the summer on a few other:
My Favorite Money and Time Saving Websites

[FrugalNYC]

@rabidpotatochip, Wow, that's great. I think we can recycle and reuse so much of the older computer equipment in the country/world. Its a shame that so much get thrown out. The only thing holding it back is the power consumption. I think OpenOffice is great, I use it at home instead of MS Office

@hermione, Those posts are great! All the software I recommend on my posts on both blogs are free software. I think its great that there are so many options out there now. Years ago, we did not have all those options. Thank You Free Software foundation! Did you know Mozilla Revenues Hit $75 Million? Its pretty amazing considering they only started a couple of years ago and its mostly a free software company. It does help to give