Whats a fair price for used computer equipment between friends?
A machine that old, particularly from Gateway, hardly a speed-demon outfit, will be essentially worthless. You’ll have to buy a bunch of RAM to make it useful, but RAM from that era is often very expensive. I can’t say for sure without actual specs, but I think you’re wasting your time with it. A brand-new, solid machine, much MUCH faster than that Gateway, will be like $400. Linux will almost certainly run on it, but it’s gotten all bloaty and stuff too, and needs tons of RAM to run either KDE or GNOME well. It’s not really any better than Windows in that regard. It once was, but that was because the programmers hadn’t written that much code for it yet. I think you’ll probably just get a bad feeling about Linux from a machine that old. Instead, use one of the LiveCDs and tinker around on a modern machine. It’s not as fast as a hard drive install, but it’s free and doesn’t change your computer in any way.
I spent a few weeks in a city far from home and there was no computer at the house I was housesitting (I thought there would be. There was a cable modem but the owner only had a laptop which she took). I wound up buying a used W98 computer from a dealer for $100. I’m sure I could have done better with more effort, but the dealer put a fresh install of W98 on the disk, so I was assured the system didn’t start out corrupted. That computer ran firefox and openoffice fine for me.
Well, I sent my friend the link to this page and told her to pick out her favorite answer. She chose blue_beetle’s. I know the computer isn’t worth $50, but I’d have to pay $350 minimum for a new machine. I don’t know the exact specs, but I helped her pick it out when she bought it, so it must be decent. Plus, she does have a lot of music and photos that she’ll have to transfer now, so that’s some work for her. And I must add that she has been one of the most generous people I know when it comes to gift giving and was awesome during my engagement/wedding. So, 50 bucks it is. We’ll both feel good about it.
