

Ask HN: What to do with a spare linux box? - manny

So I have a spare Gentoo box.<p>I want to turn it into some sort of practical utility machine, but I am having trouble with some ideas.<p>So far I have set it up to stream my MP3 collection, which is quite nice.<p>Any other ideas? 
What have you guys done with spare linux boxes?
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liangzan
There're many things you can do with a spare linux box. I do keep a few
'project ideas' links just in case I got some spare time on hand.

Home file server with ZFS - <http://breden.org.uk/2008/03/02/a-home-
fileserver-using-zfs/>

Proxy Server -
[http://devcentral.f5.com/weblogs/macvittie/archive/2008/10/0...](http://devcentral.f5.com/weblogs/macvittie/archive/2008/10/08/8-things-
you-can-do-with-a-proxy.aspx)

Map-Reduce fun with Hadoop - [http://www.michael-
noll.com/wiki/Running_Hadoop_On_Ubuntu_Li...](http://www.michael-
noll.com/wiki/Running_Hadoop_On_Ubuntu_Linux_\(Single-Node_Cluster\))

Donate bandwidth with a Tor Server - [http://ubuntu-
tutorials.com/2007/08/31/how-to-run-a-tor-serv...](http://ubuntu-
tutorials.com/2007/08/31/how-to-run-a-tor-server-donate-bandwidth-to-the-tor-
network/)

More good ideas - [http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2007/09/17/put-that-old-
comput...](http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2007/09/17/put-that-old-computer-to-
good-use/)

A Dial-In server - <http://www.howtoforge.com/linux_dialin_server>

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inimino
You could give it away to someone who really needs it.

A lot of low-income families and kids don't have computers, and there are
organizations (Free Geek is one) that accept and distribute donated machines.

~~~
rw
Donate.

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ichverstehe
Get a VoIP account, set up Asterisk, throw in Adhearsion, do fun stuff. I
rickroll random incoming calls. People recently stopped calling me.

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manny
I was also thinking of maybe doing that Folding@Home stuff.

