It is a good idea to ask the IS department at your employer if they are throwing away old machines, I asked and now whenever they have something they offer it to me - my wife has a 'one old computer from work only' rule though. I have made one into a media director and hidden it in a closet. out of sight out of mind - may be time to bring home another.
I also know that the local recycling centre has a pile of old PC's. I was there a few years ago and 'rescued' a cpu fan for use as cooling in my Paintball mask - worked great until you get shot in the intake vent - then you get sprayed with paint bigtime in the face by the fan.
ROFL
All good ideas, although the local recycling centre isn't an option - here in the UK the local authorities are so paranoid about being sued if they sell something that turns out to be faulty, that they have now stopped all sales from recycling cntres. (Yeah, I know, how can you recycle if you can't reuse?)
I did manage to rescue a few machines from work (AND I don't have to hide them from the boss!
) but I havn't worked out the chipsets etc yet.
I think I'm gonna take the hint and jump in. 8.10 wins the day at the moment, although if it proves too problematic, I'll drop back to 7.10. Linux itself doesn't frighten me, but I'm not used to the Debian derivatives (apt-get methodology) and am used to having to think the solution myself (I've seen the various posts saying "stop trying to think about it!
)One question, I have a HDD with a load of files (mostly docs not media) that I want to transfer. If I put this in, will MCE trash it? Mount it and give me access? Allow me to mount it so I can copy the files and then reformat it ready for MCE management? (Obviously, #3 is my hoped for answer!)
Anyway, I'll try not to get sprayed in the face with anything (paint or otherwise) while I do this
