The Myth hardware (500Gb HD, Hauppauge tuner card, Atheros wifi card) were swapped out into the newer PC, and the original extra cards (Sound Blaster, modem) were put back into it, and after a few glitches it was able to have Gutsy Gibbon installed on its internal 8.5Gb HD. The original intention was to put it up for the taking on the local Freecycle board, but I remembered a friend of ours had had her desktop fried in an electrical storm a year ago and still hadn't replaced hers. When I suggested she take this one, she agreed.
- The goal: get a non-power user Windows user comfortable with using Ubuntu Linux in her home for web browsing, media playback, etc.
- The parameters: an ancient PC with a 450MHz PIII, 512Mb RAM, 8.5Gb HD, TNT nVidia graphics card predating most OpenGL extensions, Sound Blaster card, and a CD burner. Gutsy Gibbon.
- What I preinstalled: Flash, Java, media codecs, VLC, XMMS, Streamcast, MSTTcorefonts, GnuCash, Gimp, Inkscape, Flickr Uploader, Gmail tickler, XGalaga, a user account for me and a user account for her (both with sudo access). If her kindergartener/1st grader need accounts they can get non-admin accounts.
- What else I did: I uninstalled the nvidia-glx-legacy driver, because it disables resolution above 800x600 on the monitor I was using. Added OpenOffice quicklauncher to top bar and ensured OO was aware of the JVM installed.
Assuming she's happy with basic usage, this should be a decent workstation for a while longer. Updates as they occur.
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