Install Linux on it. Seriously.
Linux used to be a geek’s operating system, but it’s now a few things that might surprise you:
- Easy to use. Linux looks a lot like Windows, and can even be made to look like a Mac. Same stuff: Icons, menus, etc.
- A better operating system than Windows. I have often said: Windows “hangs” enough that there is in the tech world an anagram for what happens: the BSD, or Blue Screen of Death. Here’s the thing: I don’t know what happens when Linux hangs. I don’t know what that looks like, and I’ve seen Linux a lot. (I was CEO of a Linux management company for three years.)
- Fully loaded. Every decent version of Linux comes with a full set of applications, including OpenOffice, which is a word processor, spreadsheet, presentations, etc. software package that is compatible with Microsoft’s products (meaning: you can read files that someone else wrote in, say, Microsoft Word; and you can save files as Word, Excel, or Powerpoint files, so a Windows user can utilize your stuff, too). Oh, and: if you were taking my advice and using web applications, then who really cares if it has Microsoft-compatible apps anyway?
- Capable of running your old hardware just fine, thank you. Every version of Windows requires more and more horsepower, but Linux is designed to run perfectly on just about any decent computer.
- Safe. There are many times more dangers like viruses and spyware written for Windows than there are for Linux. All that crap bogging down your system? Won’t happen.
To be honest, I’d run Linux on any PC or laptop in my house that wasn’t running well. Go to www.ubuntu.com, and you can download a copy to burn onto a CD (if you know how to do that) or order a copy for essentially the cost of a CD plus shipping and handling (I think it’s $9.95). It will absolutely revitalize an old system, or breathe life into a newer one that seems to be slowing down. Do it.
