For readers unfamiliar, the Old Computer Challenge is an annual week-long event where participants are invited to return to using outdated hardware or software for a week in a demonstration of what you can still achieve without the luxuries of modern computer technology. I've never participated before, but I have followed the blog posts for years. This year I have decided to get more involved and attempt to join in as a participant.
There used to be themes in previous years but this year the theme is "there is no challenge". This could be taken on face value that there is no structured objective this year, but it could also be read as saying that using old hardware presents no challenge in achieving what you aim to achieve.
My first decision was choosing what old computer I am to use this year and for that I chose my first laptop, a Samsung N110 Netbook (wikipedia) that I purchased new in 2009.
The specs of this beast are: -
- CPU: Intel Atom N270
- RAM: 2GB
- HDD: 250GB mechanical
- NET: 802.11g Wi-Fi and Fast Ethernet
- OS: Windows XP Home
While it is not the oldest computer I have, it is - by far - the least powerful, including the oldest PC I own that has an Athlon XP 2000+ from 2002!
After running Linux on this laptop for years, I recently restored it to it's factory condition using an OEM install disk created for this model that I found on the Internet Archive.
I have so far installed Firefox 52.9.0 ESR, the last version that supported 32bit Windows XP and provided I do not attempt to access the bloated modern web, it runs quite responsively. I've also installed mIRC so that I can join in the #oldcomputerchallenge chat on libera.chat.
I'll be interested in finding out what I can still reasonably achieve with this laptop, but the combination of it's very end of support OS, outdated applications and performance that was already an anachronism when it first launched, I'm expecting it will be best served offline, which is ironic for a device expressly designed to do the opposite.
FWIW, this post was written using it, in Markdown using Notepad++, so there's one thing. =)