My parents have an old Compaq Presario SR1950NX that works perfectly fine, but hasn’t been used in at least 15 years. Obviously I can’t connect it to the internet with Windows XP, but before I recycle it I thought I’d see if anyone had any cool ideas for how I could use it. I’m sure I could find Linux distro that would work, but I don’t really need another desktop PC in the house.
Obligatory Lemmy answer: Install Linux.
Seriously, though, it’s a great way of learning if you decide to set it up as a NAS
Using a spare system that isn’t in active use anymore to mess around and learn is definitely a good idea. However for long-term use I would keep an eye out for energy consumption. Depending on electricity prices it might make more sense to get a newer system with lower power draw, especially for something with high uptime.
That’s an interesting idea! I’ve never really messed with networking outside of just sharing files and folders between PCs. Sounds like a low-risk way to tinker and learn.