What to do with old pc?

Hey Folks...

I have a pc which i aint used for a while.

After reading all the arguments for Mozilla vs IE and Windows vs well... anything really( ), i have decided to change my 2nd pc to use anything except micro$oft products.

The problem is, it's quite an old pc and i dont know what will run on it.

It is a PI 133MHz (told ya it was old!)
24MB Ram
2GB HDD

I know this will cope with Windows 95 but i dont want to use that. Any other OS's be able to run on it?

All opinions welcome!

You can do a slim and trim install of most *nix operating systems and it be under 2GB but it most likely won't leave you much room for anything else.
You might could make a router out of it.

i shoulda mentioned...

i am gonna be getting a new system soon which will be nice and powerful! (yeah baby! )

i want this new system to never have ms stuff near it so i am using my old pc to 'get acquainted' with other products.

Once i got my new pc the older one was gonna be used as a router or something similar like you suggested onslaught. (if it can cope!)

Also, any links for where to get the software?

(I am at work now and not allowed to search for anything that aint work related! They are clamping down on it...i shouldnt really be on devshed!)

The Screensavers have shown a few free downloads that will turn that into a router.
Here's their article on SmoothWall
And the SmoothWall site
Here's their article on Clark Connect
And the Clark Connect Site
Clark Connect looks like it needs a bit more RAM, but you should be fine with SmoothWall. I haven't tried either one yet, but I have the same plans for an old 486. I just can't get it to format to get Windows off!
You could definately find a Linux distro that will run on that to familiarize yourself. Then when you get the new PC, turn this one into a dedicated router/firewall. Or you could even use it as a file/mp3 server, or a doorstop!

thanks for the info!

I like the idea of making it into a dedicated firewall...i never thought about doing that.

How would i go about doing that?

I dont have any experience with firewalls and limited experience with networking.

There is a distribution of Linux called Coyote Linux that runs off
of a floppy! This will turn your old PC into a great router/firewall.

http://www.coyotelinux.com/

Ya - you can also get morphix thats runs off the CD, and extremely fast at that. There also is with the CD a package you can use to create your own variant with whatever you want on it, including firewalls, etc. - burn your variant to CD and take it with you .

That's the same as my old computer I just tossed in the storage room.

I had thought about doing the same thing for a while, but since space is limited where I'm at, I decided to just beef up my main system and go with VMWare to run multiple operating systems and "play" with them.

http://www.vmware.com/

---John Holmes...