<div dir="ltr">Picking up where SteveT left off, wouldn't a $40 RPi3 be adequate to the task? With TDP in the range of an old school (pre LED) kid's night light at something like what 8 watts power consumption, you could run it fanless, reducing both noise and failure points. Just guessing, but a minimally tasked older system, esp. if P4, would likely draw over 10x more power.<div><br></div><div>I'm not great with math, but if I did the numbers right 8Wx24x365/1000 = 70.08kWH/year at average of $0.10/kWH = $7.01/year for the Pi vs ~ $70/year for the PC (even more if P4). So it wouldn't take too many months to recover the cost of new RPi based system vs using an old decommissioned PC. <div><br></div><div>Greg C</div></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Jun 17, 2017 at 11:42 PM, Steve Litt <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:slitt@troubleshooters.com" target="_blank">slitt@troubleshooters.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><span class="">On Sat, 17 Jun 2017 17:53:01 -0400 (EDT)<br>
Ken Cochran <<a href="mailto:kwc@shell.theworld.com">kwc@shell.theworld.com</a>> wrote:<br>
<br>
> Hi again ALErs, nice thread on NAS recommendations, sounds<br>
> like it would be an awesome meeting topic too.<br>
><br>
> Another looking-around question/need:<br>
><br>
> Need some kind of distro appropriate for what I'll call a<br>
> "semi-kiosk" computer; best I can tell, all it needs to run<br>
> are the following:<br>
><br>
> - Browser (probably Firefox unless someone can recommend<br>
> better), especially for web-email a la gmail<br>
> - shell (duh)<br>
> - probably camera/photo ingest<br>
><br>
> Current plan is to repurpose an old HP desktop machine that<br>
> currently runs WinXP. It is a P4 (32-bit), with 1gb RAM & I'll<br>
> probably replace its hdd so as to not lose what's on it now.<br>
> (Right now it's pretty much a dedicated Quickbooks & word<br>
> processing box & NEVER connects to ANY network.)<br>
><br>
> Looking for a distro that I don't have to mess-around with<br>
> much, e.g. some kind of analogue to Software Update on M$<br>
> & Apple products. Ideas? Naturally, FAQ/doc pointers are<br>
> welcome, as well as FMs to RT :)<br>
<br>
</span>I'd use Void Linux, but I think most distros that still ship 32bit will<br>
do the trick: 1GB RAM is quite a bit.<br>
<br>
For window manager, use something like Openbox or JWM with Suckless<br>
Tools' dmenu hotkeyed in. IceWM will work too, but its menu has gotten<br>
so bad it's almost like not having one.<br>
<br>
For browser, use Midori or xxxterm or xombrero or surf.<br>
<br>
I'd stay away from distros built from the bottom up to give you that<br>
GUI experience. No composing, no "desktop environment", no magical<br>
network connectors, and I'd advise against systemd. Just something<br>
simple.<br>
<br>
By the way, a lot of the other responses mentioned that it's so cheap<br>
to get a lot better than this box that it's almost silly to spend time<br>
with it. A lot of distros are dropping 32 bit: That time is near; there<br>
will come a time when the electrical power costs of this computer<br>
outstrip its use to you.<br>
<br>
SteveT<br>
<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
Steve Litt<br>
June 2017 featured book: The Key to Everyday Excellence<br>
<a href="http://www.troubleshooters.com/key" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.troubleshooters.<wbr>com/key</a><br>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br></div>