Linux - GeneralThis Linux forum is for general Linux questions and discussion.
If it is Linux Related and doesn't seem to fit in any other forum then this is the place.
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
Currently, I have linux running on a 386 with 4 Mb RAM, I did it just for the fun, but now I really want to do something with it.
Does anyone have any suggestions?????
And I don't want to do anything web-related.
If your on a network, they make great routers, firewall or proxy server. Is that too web related for you?
not much else I could think of with so little power. You could turn it into a MP3 machine and put it in your car, I hope to do that soon.
Well, that's all I have on ideas.....anyone else....!
You can make a nice configuration to do graphic (hardware) programming on it if you connect it to your normal PC with a serial nulmodem. That's also usefull when you mess up XWindow. Finally you can use it as a console to log the kernel boot messages when messing with the kernel.
What about getting a few more of them, stack them all together and build a "supercomputer"?
I read somewhere that linux is capable of building one "virtual" machine that consists of several machines.... don't know exactly what its called though....
after that you could have it participate in the distributed.net or seti@home program
I believe that is called a 'cluster'. I saw a book on building linux clusters at Barnes & Noble. I always thought I'd be cool. I did read where a guy picked up like 20 old 386 -486 PCs that a school was throwing out. He took everything out of the cases and fashioned a rack to hold all the motherboards and stuff. He claimed that you could use any PC you wanted, you could mix and match a 386 with a P3, or several of each and they all teamed up as one.
There's only one thing you should use a 386 (or worse) for (if you only have the one, anyway) -
retro games machine!!
you are in an uncommon position to run lots of really great games which were designed to run as fast as the processor could go, and as a result are completely unplayable on fast machines...
unfortunately I cant really think of any at the moment...
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.