I had installed Debian on an Acer Aspire One Laptop. It has a 32-bit Intel Atom CPU with just 1GB of RAM. I obviously can’t run it like a usual desktop anymore, it’s way too slow.

I tried it to connect it to my TV with HDMI to create some sort of “Smart TV” setup, but that didn’t work out because I can’t even play 1080p videos on VLC with it smoothly.

So… What now? Can I only use it for headless stuff like pihole, nextcloud, etc. now?

Is there any hope left for my unsuccessful “Smart TV” contraption?

  • bloodfart
    4·
    3 months ago

    Some more things I’ve used old netbooks for:

    Portable pxe boot server

    Audio source for mixing (think using a mixing board to do audio collage work with tape, record and digital sources)

    Midi sequencer- the cheap usb to midi breakout cable works good here and you really don’t need much horsepower to sequence midi.

    Tracker playback and editing

    Display driver/art/digital photo collage/digital signage/whatever.

    E: People will tell you that you’re better off with a sbc because it’ll save you money on power. Do your own research on this. A kill-a-watt is cheap and the power savings quickly gets murky.