Try to flash Coreboot on it.

WireGuard, and an external HDD. Run at a remote location for off-site backup.

I do this with a raspberry pi 3 at the in-laws. I copied the data over locally before setting it up, and after that it’s just nightly incremental rsync, which is fine even over my slow (35Mbps) upload.

Host a Lemmy server

I don’t think there’s any useful way to put it to regular use for yourself, but you could:

• install debian on it and keep it around in case of an emergency. turn it on once in a while to keep it updated (doesn’t need to be that often, it’s debian)
• use it on the go (no worries about it getting stolen)*
• use it a place where you wouldn’t use your main laptop as to not risk damange (camping, hiking, on a trip, etc)*
• install a friendlier linux distro and give it away to someone who doesn’t have a computer (a 10yo cousin maybe)
• give it away to someone who has a computer, but doesn’t have a second one and might be happy to get one to play with

*though i imagine the battery is not in good shape given your “beaten up” description

If it’s an asus ee, the vents are all on the sides. With a couple of shims underneath it would fit in a bookshelf with a bunch of other books.

As far as uses… nat hole punching for an overlay network is one way I’ve used these devices before.

Batocera linux and retro games!

Minecraft server is always easy and fun. Honestly any game server.

You could use it to host a simple webpage too.

Assuming it’s not completely useless for this purpose, you could load FreeDOS on it and use it for playing older PC games.

MS-DOS 6.22 would be sub-optimal as it was designed with 486-era and older hardware in mind and since it doesn’t support FAT32 and only supports FAT16, you’re limited to 2GB partitions, while FreeDOS is actually designed with newer hardware like this in mind and supports FAT32 and thus larger drives.

If it has an ethernet port (or perhaps a USB to ethernet dongle), maybe a PiHole DNS using Debian or the like? It is apparently supported on other Linux distros than Raspbian.

If it supports micro SD XC (i.e. capacities higher than 32GB) or you have a USB hard drive or high capacity USB flash drive, maybe a samba server for file storage? I often use my file server as a substitute for digging out a flash drive any time I want to quickly pass a file between two machines in my house.

Could use it kind of like an extra monitor with something like Barrier.

Could use it like a home assistant for a kitchen or something, but I don’t know if there’s any good privacy respecting software for that ATM (looks like MyCroft went bankrupt).

I used an old laptop I had laying around for controlling a Maslow CNC. Could also use a laptop to run OctoPrint or something.

Or I could recycle it

Could you really? E-waste recycling is a great lie made so that people don’t get remorse over throwing away their devices. Electronics are too complex, diverse and full of toxic stiff to be property recycled.

If anyone wants to dive more into this, there has been some projects where people from higher income countries put tracking devices inside e-waste before sending to “recycling”, to find out where they end up. Spoiler: in poorer countries, to either be scattered around, thrown into a landfill, or be scavenged by underpaid people without any protection equipment.

It’s okay to let things go when they’re not useful any more.

Or, turn it into art.

Well, right now I’m experimenting with an old mini PC, and using a couple of USB HDDs im creating a ZFS pool to serve as storage for an email server

@remindme@mstdn.social 24 hours “remind me”