http://ask.metafilter.com/tags/makenew Questions tagged with 'makenew' at Ask MetaFilter. Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:57:38 -0800 Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:57:38 -0800 en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 http://ask.metafilter.com/107821/WE%2DHAVE%2DCOMPUTERS Found an old computer in the basement. What steps should I go through to get it up and running? Seems a previous tenant left a computer tower in the basement. It's from, at the newest, 2003.<br> <br> I plugged it into power, hit the on button, and stuff whirred, and green lights came on. It doesn't have any cables, mouse or a monitor, and my access to a monitor will be limited to what I can borrow off friends for short periods (have a MacBook, if there's some neat trick to be able to use it as a monitor...).<br> <br> What can I do to get this up and running (thinking of installing Linux or BSD) - what bits will I need to scrounge, what should I do to check that everything's in place hardware-wise etc.?<br> <br> And secondly, what flavour of Linux/Unix should I install, and how can I go about making this thing useful beyond being a pretty neat geeky playground?<br> <br> Basically, what's the ABC of going from pile of junk to functional in this situation? tag:ask.metafilter.com,2008:site.107821 Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:57:38 -0800 freepc geekchristmascomeearly linux makenew old pc possiblybroken unix djgh