i have an old wood desk at the office. it just resonates and amplifies noise when i set a desktop form factor external hdd (with its attached rubber feet) on it. it now sits on a couple old-school foam rubber mouse mats.

don’t expect a 19 year old laptop to perform all the tricks something more ‘modern’ can do, such as transcoding video for a streaming media server. also note that a t5600 is not a ulv chip (draws as much as 34w under load, on its own)–so probably not a candidate to run ‘lid down’ without some outside help for cooling.

it’s not fast, it’s not power efficient, it has slow networking (10/100 and 22-year old ‘g’ wifi), and lacks usb3 for ‘tolerable’ speed on extra external storage space—but it will be ‘ok enough’ for learning on.

if you go with something like yunohost or even dietpi, you will pretty much restrict yourself to what it can run and do and how it does it. if you want more ‘control’ or to install things they don’t offer themselves, you’ll need to ‘roll your own’. a base (console only) debian would be a great place to start. popular, stable, and tons of online resources and tutorials.

i use dietpi, which is built upon a minimal debian.

office back in the 9x days you could just use all 1’s.

that’s the one i remember… and the picture of it next to the release countdown at microsoft’s offices.

i think the only things these days for ‘unactivated windows’ (home, pro editions) is inability to ‘customize the desktop’ (change wallpaper, theme…) and occasional activation nags.

it doesn’t quit working or shutdown (iirc enterprise or server trials do that after they expire, though) or quit getting updates or anything like that.

they actually still ‘win’, because you’re still using their platform.

you can mostly just create ISO files from the discs.

some original discs, especially games, may have a copy protection scheme (safedisc, securom, etc) that makes them unplayable without being run with the original media, though. there was some software back then that worked pretty well at ‘making backups’ of those discs. also note that some drives (the hardware itself) were better than others at running that software to make them. i haven’t kept up with that stuff in a very long time, so i don’t have a clue what exists today.

minecraft

they’re great if you do more than one thing at a time or need many programs open at the same time. anyone who regularly ‘alt-tabs’ to find or switch to a different window that they cannot currently see could benefit from another screen.

one wide or ultra wide display may not work as well, as some programs simply aren’t made with that aspect ratio in mind. we have one program here that insists upon being in a maximized window–always. a lot of wasted space, even on a 16:9. that user has two 5:4 instead and loves that setup.

i run with scripts disabled by default. it gets annoying at times, but most sites and pages i go to work fine. a few are true ‘apps’ and are whitelisted. random sites that don’t work i just search for an alternative source if i really want to read it. i have separate browser installs with fewer restrictions that i use specifically for certain things (like webmail or the little online shopping i do).

the few web sites that i am responsible for… all work without scripts. many of the visitors i care about have shitty internet, so i don’t want massive js or css bundles in there or tons of unoptimized graphics or media.

website wouldn’t need to embed any JS code.

other than the 20 trackers and ad scripts.

real-life clickwrap.

‘kindly recite the full text of the terms of service before i choose whether push the button or punch your face’

i nuked my post history and haven’t logged-in to ‘that site’ in about two years. there is one sub i lurk in occasionally that hasn’t gained any traction on the lemmy equivalent. that’s it other than the (relatively infrequent) pointer to a post from a web search for which no other alternative was listed.

too often. but at least they’re $50-80 flippers and not $1000 slabs.

the number of years i’ve run usb->sata adapters and had (up to a dozen or so) bare drives laying around and propped up anywhere i could find a spot…

you aren’t putting a 3.5in in that slimline bay. you might be able to rig something to hold one there, though. that’s where the get ‘‘creative’’ part comes in.

you also have the 2x2.5in at the bottom but you’re missing the rails or caddies for them. should be like 5-6 bucks each or so on ebay or azn. don’t bother with those, though, unless you’re putting in hdd there. sata ssd can just be stuffed in the cage, they ain’t going anywhere.

be careful with whatever mb->sata power cables you have. make sure they’re the correct ones, as they aren’t all the same. you could get away with a 1->2 sata power splitter once on each mb power connection, as the output of each is designed for 2x3.5in hdd anyway.

edit: just looked at a similar model here. removing the slimline optical and stuffing a 3.5in hdd there will obstruct the cpu hsf a bit. might have to swap that for a lower profile cooler to put the drive there… BUT. if you take out the existing hdd (because its caddy thing gets in the way), there is just enough room along the flipout bit between that hdd bay and the 2.5in cage below to fit a 3.5in. would need a little ‘modification’ to the case there to rig a mount for it. but it fits. then the existing hdd can slide back in. (see pic, the ancient seagate hdd is placed in that space)

you’re talking the ‘RED’ series inspiron minitower?

iirc there’s only one 3.5in bay adjacent to the slimline optical bay, and two 2.5in bays in a cage at the bottom front.

bays use drive rails which may or may not be present if the bay was unpopulated when originally shipped.

the pc uses 12vo power supply, so the drives are powered off the motherboard. those cables may also not be present if they weren’t needed for the original configuration.

slimline optical bays can often be filled with a caddy designed fit in the form factor, connecting to the optical power and sata, and hold a 2.5in ssd drive.

you will have to get ‘‘creative’’ to securely mount more than one 3.5in hdd inside.

the kb is almost always usb or wireless these days. just disconnect it or flip its own switch

it would have to be a territory… or territories, even it’s 50 of them. as territories only get 1 mp each. a 340+ million population province would get like 90% of the seats in parliament.