cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/40805695

I have two machines:

  • 2014 Mac Mini
  • HP Pavilion g7

Mac Mini 2014:

Very slow, probably can no longer be updated, nor can it run worthwhile programs.

HP Pavilion g7

Extremely bulky, chunky, and doesn’t even turn on unless it’s plugged in. It’s basically a desktop since the battery doesn’t hold a charge.

I put Linux on it (Mint I think) a few months ago as a weekend experiment.

Question:

What should I do with them? Are they worth salvaging? Should I simply donate or recycle them?

I was thinking I could use at least one of them as a home media server or something so that I can disconnect my Smart TV from the internet, but I’m not sure if they will hold or how I would even control them from my phone (Android) if I’m sitting on the couch.

Open to all ideas. I’m somewhat technical (perhaps far less than the Lemmy community), but I don’t know much about Linux or the command line unless I’m given step by step instructions on how to do something.

  • phanto@lemmy.caEnglish
    1·
    21 hours ago

    I have an old as eff laptop hiding behind my TV, and I use Unified Remote to make my phone act like a wireless mouse and keyboard for it.

    Also, Proxmox is basically the answer to “I hate big tech and have a lot of time to kill. How do I deal?” Make one computer into 30 mini servers.

  • cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    191·
    2 days ago

    The Mac Mini should still be perfectly usable if you put Linux on it and upgrade it to an SSD.

      • cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        6·
        2 days ago

        You can get an adapter board that will make it work with an M.2 SSD. I believe it’s only PCIe 2.0, so there’s no point putting a high end SSD in it unless you need a high write endurance. Any SSD will be a huge improvement over a hard drive.

        Most Linux distros will run on it since it’s using a 64 bit Intel CPU. If you have the version with 4GB of RAM, you will need something very lightweight though. I would run Debian if I was going to use it as a server or Mint if I was going to use it as a desktop.

  • irmadlad@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    1 day ago

    Are they worth salvaging?

    I think they are worth salvaging, if but for a little while until at such time you wish to upgrade to something else.

    but I don’t know much about Linux

    Here’s a good opportunity to buff up your skill set. With two units, you can get into simple networking one device to another. Things like that. I see Proxmox has been mentioned and that might be an avenue to explore. Generally, I don’t toss a piece of equipment unless it has zero possibilities for use. I can always find something to do with old equipment even if it’s just testing out something new I’ve learned recently, without screwing up my main stack.

  • Lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    7·
    2 days ago

    My NAS is a 2014 Mac Mini running OMV. It works great, very capable little Linux machine. Don’t bother with Mac OS.

  • Xanthobilly@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    1 day ago

    I installed Proxmox on an old MacMini. It works great for spinning up virtual machines for things like a pinhole, qBittorrent, or a Minecraft server.

    *piehole

        • irmadlad@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          1 day ago

          Your name gave me a chuckle. At first I thought it said ‘lemmy_clear_my_throat’ However, if you do somehow manage to deploy Proxmox with Wi-Fi capabilities, I’ve got a project, so do please share any findings.

          • lemmy_get_my_coat@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            24 hours ago

            Didn’t mean to give false hope, just meant that after a bunch of tinkering I eventually got WiFi working on the Mac Mini running debian itself, so maybe there’s hope for wireless in proxmox, but unfortunately I have no experience with that.

          • lemmy_get_my_coat@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            24 hours ago

            Nah, this was for the Mac Mini running debian itself. I haven’t had any experience running proxmox, but was just idly wondering that maybe there’s a path to get it working in there given the there was a (PITA) path for getting it working in debian.

            • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.worldEnglish
              2·
              7 hours ago

              If it has wired Ethernet, proxmox is like, a small miracle of convenience. You can slice and dice multiple machines from one. It’s litterally one for the best pieces of diy infra support I’ve ever experienced…

              But you gotta be hardwired.

      • nublug@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        3·
        2 days ago

        any other linux distro can do vms and containers, too. arguably it’s easier to do that than with proxmox.

        but yeah, i wanted to check it out so threw it on the drive i pulled from my old broken laptop to check it out and discovered the wifi omission. i even tried to install base debian and ensure wifi was set up first then convert to a proxmox install. sadly, proxmox’s network stack is in conflict with any other linux network libs and actively uninstalled whichever one i had set up during the proxmox conversion.

        i get their reasoning for not supporting wifi after looking it up but imho completely removing it as a possibility is a bit not cool, bro. i wasn’t trying to do any high availability or multiple nodes or anything like that so it wouldn’t have been an issue for my use case anyway.

        • irmadlad@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          1 day ago

          discovered the wifi omission.

          TIL I didn’t realize that Proxmox doesn’t support Wi-Fi. Well, now I can scratch one project off the list.