How to "Build" a Fully-Functional Linux Computer Using TinyMe for Less Than $50

Not owning a PC nowadays is inexcusable. With the right amount of time and luck, you can score a new (at least, to you) PC and have it work using a little bit of know-how and Linux.

Here's how ya do it - First, go around town to your nearby thrift stores. Goodwill, whatever Missions, Catholic Social Services, and such are goldmines for finding discarded working PCs. Even trying to talk one of your friends or family into giving away their old clunker and this will make your project even cheaper!

First, download and burn the TinyMe Linux LiveCD to a disc (using ISO Recorder, preferably) and test it. TinyMe is a small but robust Linux operating system (the ISO image file is at 200mb!) that you can run on pretty old hardware. It blazes on newer machines, almost too fast. It also recognizes tons of hardware. In fact, it's found everything I've thrown at it.

Next, take a power cord, an old mouse and keyboard (just in case the target PC doesn't come with one) and go to your thrift store and look for a fairly okay looking PC tower with a built in CD-ROM. Make sure it is a tower! If it lays flat, you might have a harder time with it.

Next, ask an associate if you can test it. If there's a monitor there, plug it up and stick in your TinyMe CD (make sure the BIOS, if it comes up, boots from CD first) and give it a go. If everything goes well (speed, hardware recognition, doesn't act strange), check out the price tag. Most thrift stores will likely come down on the marked price, especially since it is hard for the to sell electronics. Then, if it doesn't come with a monitor, buy one there if one's available. My local Goodwill sells PC monitors for five bucks. If you have an oldie at home, of course, that should work, too.

Once you get it home, open the case and clean out your find with compressed air. This should get it to work a little faster since it probably has a lot of lint build-up.

Connect everything once more and be more thorough with how things are working. All the fans run? While using TinyMe, see if it recognizes a file system other than itself. It does? Great, that means the hard drive works. It doesn't? Cause for concern but don't panic, we'll get to that.

It's time to see if your new PC can handle the internet. I'm talking broadband, high-speed, DSL, cable, whatever. No Wi-Fi or dial up please. Check the back for an ethernet port. Does it have one? Wonderful! It doesn't? Aww... That's okay, go to your nearest electronics store (even Wal-Mart will do) and pick one up. Just get a super-basic Ethernet card for no more than $10-$15. Go home and install the card to the system according to the manufacturer's instructions EXCEPT the drivers. No drivers, TinyMe should recognize the card. It also wouldn't hurt to check for USB ports. If your computer didn't have them (gosh, that's old) pick up a USB adapter card, too.

Now, plug everything up. Put in the TinyMe CD. On the desktop is an "Install" icon. Follow the instructions and let it format everything. If it gives you an error reading the hard drive, well, you're kinda screwed there unless you buy a new drive. If not, let 'er rip!

Once everything works, plug up your ethernet/network cable and go into the networking section of your Control Center. Follow the instructions. TinyMe uses the Opera browser (which, next to Firefox I recommend) but if you want to use Firefox, you can download it. However, I do not recommend using software that didn't come with the OS since there may be terrible slowdown or even a crash. Try it with the LiveCD first.

If everything went well, I'm happy! Love to spread the wealth of knowledge. You can try other stuff, too. Give these computers as gifts or network your whole house for the price of one middle-of-the-line new Windows PC.