welp now i'm a part of the CIA

So just a couple of hours ago had gotten this bulky thing from my "other school" (its just a school where you learn about professions and jobs to do once you graduate)
View attachment 274659

from what I can assume my cybersecurity teacher either
A: Had a shipment of new computers
B: They were old, so they didnt need them
C: just because why not

Either way, I now have my own computer!
No my sister's laptop!
No more family desktop!
No more borrowing!
... Is what i would say if it was functioning properly.
There's no OS on it, the hard drive is just curled up ribbon cables in a metallic rectangular prism and the thing is friggin' 15 years old (or older!)
There needs to be a couple things done to it. But hey...
View attachment 274663
It can fold into a tablet and it has a stylus. That's nice :)
I'll start by getting Lubuntu (thanks @PipeWarp !) And an SSD. After that, I'll try to keep you updated on any upgrades or things that i might do to it
But think of all the things i could do to it. Blender, Citra, Minecraft and more in the palm of...uhh... on the desk of my room!
Pretty exciting stuff, no?
(fun fact: the company who made this is/was contracted by the US government to make laptops and stuff. which explains my title
which means I am rapidly approaching your house. run)
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Comments

D
Broo get linux on that, especially if its old. |Get manjaro or smthn more lightweight like Lubuntu.
 
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Real question is: Are you part of the CIA? Or is the CIA a part of you?

Greater question: Are you the CIA?

Hmm.
 
With something that old you are probably going to need a SATA to IDE adapter to get the SSD working. Also, it is highly unlikely Windows 10 will be usable on it.
 
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Hmm, interesting. I should have remembered there things when I took the class last year, but then again, covid messed up most of it.
 
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I wouldn't be so sure. 15 years ago means that it would be dual core at best (Intel released their first dual core CPU in 2005), most likely single core. With a likely 1GB of RAM will Windows 10 even boot?
 
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is that an intel Centrino sticker on it? maybe a core duo, either way, this thing is pretty old, i mean if it has a 1 core 2 threaded processor you would be able to squeak by with a 64bit os, but i would keep it to linux at that point and one with a lighter interface like LXDE
 
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@SaberLilly Wow, you have a keen eye! Especially for a screenshot so blurry!
It also does seem to be dual-core, from what little information I've found and gotten

That's what I was thinking. Keep it light and simple, maybe upgrade the parts to it if it's possible. Again, burning that bridge when i get to it.
 
UPDATED UPDATE: apparently this is actually just the NCS Magnus RNM101. No 'R'. Small minor detail, but to clarify, this is the original, not the revision, I would assume
 
everyone is mentioning linux but having had many old and ancient laptops I would recommend installing the latest version of windows 7 just for the fact that it supports these old cpu's better and you will likeley be able to install the proper drivers for it.

I had an old packard bell "eepc" type laptop which I decided to install ubuntu on, it was very slow, it would constantly freeze and for some reason it didn't detect the laptop's own battery so it had to be plugged in at all times, I decided to install a more light linux distro which ran better but I had even more problems, e.g. wifi stopped working, webcam not recognised, gpu not recognised, etc.

This has also happened to other old pc's I own, after giving up I decided to install windows 7 x64 (even though it originally had vista x32) and it ran fast compared to the linux distros, most components at the beginning didn't work like I described above but I was able to easily download and install drivers from the internet, I also ran and updated them through one of those driver updater programs (if you do this I recommend iobit's driver booster and also don't forget to uninstall it after you are done updating) and everything started working again perfectly.

I have nothing against linux, I even use it myself daily for work and other stuff, I'm just sying that from past experiance it may not be the best option for old laptops.

wow sorry for the long post.
 
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Also some computer's only have xpdm drivers which don't work on anything newer than 7. For that I'd recommend Windows Vista with Kernal Extensions.
 
Windows Vista or 7 will be insecure , so your best choice is a lightweight linux distro.
 

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