Even though I already know, that you can get a pretty fast computer
for free, or almost for free, I can't help myself treating old ones
as if they were still worth something. For example I have a Compaq
Armada E500, a fifteen-year-old notebook computer, which I acquired,
because it has a real RS-232 port, so it can be used for programming
my Motorola transceivers. I did that once, two years ago and since
then this machine has been just collecting dust on the shelf of one
of my closet as I have no other use for it. But as I don't like
computers doing nothing, I decided to dust it off and try how will
current version of OpenBSD work on it.
Since the computer has no CD/DVD drive at the moment and I have no
floppy drive in my other computers to create install floppies,
I downloaded the image for USB sticks and transferred it to the
internal HDD with dd. Once running, the installer doesn't need boot
media anymore, so HDD can be repartitioned and system installed
via HTTP.
Six years ago I had a computer with similar parameters
(600MHz Celeron, 128MB RAM) and used it as a development machine
for my bachelor's thesis. I remember how slow that machine seemed
to be with with then current Xubuntu 8 or even with original
Windows 2000. OpenBSD on the other hand is pretty fast and the
only problem I have is the sound volume, which is after boot always
on maximum, freaking me out with the first console bell.
I haven't tried more than half a dozen of applications, but mc, gcc,
lynx and dillo are working perfectly. In the following days I'm
going to install some text-based music player (mocp or cmus) and
compile my favorite window manager dwm. Then the machine will be
ready to be used, whenever I go to places not safe enough for my
precious Efika MX Smartbook.
So, OpenBSD saves. It saves old computers from being useless and
everyone should use it.
