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Recycling hardware

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oblivion:
(Yes, I know this area's for software. Bear with me!)

I have an old Dell Axim X30. It was an attempt to find a better way to do PDAish things than my old Psion 5mx, which kept needing its screen cable replacing but which had functionality oozing from every pore.

The X30 didn't cut the mustard. It'd synch with Outlook (but I didn't care whether it could or not) and I couldn't find any good ways to make it do things I felt useful. So it got shoved to the back of a drawer and forgotten about.

I found it again recently. Of course, Dell quit supporting them long ago, and I don't expect a 624MHz cpu is quite as exciting a prospect these days as it was when it was new.

So the question is: what should I do with the thing? I'm pretty sure its SD handling doesn't extend beyond 2Gb (ie not SDHC) and a bit of a play online hasn't suggested anything to me along the lines of "this hack will enable you to resurrect your Axim as a shiny and capable linux device." But I'm ever so averse to throwing something away that is still functional. Should I reinstall ActiveSync on my PC and see if it leads me to anything I didn't think of a few years back, shove it back in the drawer, or Something Else?

Here's the software bit: does anyone know if there's a way to get a usable linux onto it without requiring that I study Complicated Things for several years first?

Renegade:
So the question is: what should I do with the thing?
-oblivion (February 25, 2013, 06:35 AM)
--- End quote ---

Well, I have an old HP PDA and a Palm III. I'm keeping them to donate to a museum in a few years. Or something else similarly silly. ;D

oblivion:
So the question is: what should I do with the thing?
-oblivion (February 25, 2013, 06:35 AM)
--- End quote ---
I'm keeping them to donate to a museum in a few years.-Renegade (February 25, 2013, 06:51 AM)
--- End quote ---
I think my ex-wife still has an Intertec Superbrain (twin Z80 processors, ran CP/M off two vertically-mounted hard-sectored 5 1/4" floppy disks) sat in her attic, waiting for me to find a good use for it. One day I'll retrieve it and find a museum for it, I keep telling myself.

I remember the days when they looked futuristic. (I also remember learning Z80 assembler on one of the things. Now there were some futureproof skills. :) )

(Oh, and a perfectly excellent operating system whose size could be measured in kilobytes!)

app103:
Should I reinstall ActiveSync on my PC and see if it leads me to anything I didn't think of a few years back
-oblivion (February 25, 2013, 06:35 AM)
--- End quote ---

I am a proud owner and user of an old HP Jornada 540 PocketPC (mostly for reading ebooks or chatting on IRC when hot weather drives me to a pc-free room that has air conditioning). I know from my father's experiences that once you upgrade beyond XP that it doesn't work with newer versions of ActiveSync and you can't install the older version it needs on Vista+.

This means that once I move beyond XP, my old Jornada may be completely useless.

This might be something you will want to keep in mind when considering what to do with your old device, especially if you haven't used it since your XP days (or if you plan on upgrading beyond XP). You could have the same ActiveSync issues.

oblivion:
This means that once I move beyond XP, my old Jornada may be completely useless.
-app103 (February 25, 2013, 11:03 AM)
--- End quote ---
Windows 7's virtual XP mode might be a way round that. At least, it seems to be a full, honest-to-goodness virtual machine with enough ability to talk to USB and optical drives that things that don't work any other way, can.

What I'm not sure about is if Win8 has anything similar.

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