What can I do with my super old laptop?

maliciousonion@lemmy.ml to Linux@lemmy.ml – 76 points –

I had installed Debian on an Acer Aspire One Laptop. It has a 32-bit Intel Atom CPU with just 1GB of RAM. I obviously can't run it like a usual desktop anymore, it's way too slow.

I tried it to connect it to my TV with HDMI to create some sort of "Smart TV" setup, but that didn't work out because I can't even play 1080p videos on VLC with it smoothly.

So.... What now? Can I only use it for headless stuff like pihole, nextcloud, etc. now?

Is there any hope left for my unsuccessful "Smart TV" contraption?

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You can try turning it into a retro gaming station by installing RetroPie. Some have got it working on as little as a Pi Zero. Of course, that laptop won't be able to run the more demanding emulators.

That probably won't work well

Probably or probably not. The only way to find out is to try. I've installed RetroPie on a number of old laptops; the oldest one being a 2002 Toshiba laptop. I got to play GBA games just fine with it.