An old laptop can seem like a dead end for the average user who has upgraded to a better system. But for home lab enthusiasts, it’s an underutilized treasure that can serve as a reliable home server at no extra cost. And new users love to jump on SBC I prefer to turn old laptops and workstations into storage devices for my favorite tools a small but useful work in the overall setup.
I have a spare laptop with a second generation Intel Core i3 processor and 12 GB of DDR3 memory. I upgraded it a few months before RAM became a hard to come by commodity. The CPU is modest, but the memory allows me to run some important self-hosted programs and save money on subscriptions. Let’s discuss the programs that work reliably on the laptop.
All memories in one place
I have collected a lot of media over the last ten years and Medusa lets you view everything in an organized format. I have a lot of media files from my early university days, family gatherings, weddings and other memories that I can watch on multiple devices at home. Jellyfin serves these files over my local network and all I need to do is type the server’s IP address into any web browser.
The mobile app is an added advantage that reduces the need to struggle with the desktop interface on a mobile phone. Most of the media files I have are in 1080p or 720p resolution and streaming them to my phones, laptops or other devices is no problem. This doesn’t affect me as my laptop doesn’t support 4K or other high definition media files.
BentoPDF
Free pdf editor
Browsers have basic PDF preview options. Some offer a few annotation features along with a preview page, but they can’t replace a full-fledged PDF editor like Adobe Acrobat. I use BentoPDF because it’s a self-hosted tool, it doesn’t force me to sign up or worry about subscriptions, while offering similar features to paid alternatives like Adobe Acrobat.
My use cases don’t fit into monthly subscriptions because I’m a sporadic user and Bento PDF is perfect for that. I used StirlingPDF in the past, but dropped it due to high resource usage and changing privacy policies. BentoPDF is quite lightweight compared to StirlingPDF and can run with less than 50MB of memory in most cases.
With my recent upgrade, I don’t need to worry about memory since the memory is now 12GB and Bento PDF is completely client-side. This means that all PDF operations and processing happen locally in my browser, while the server only stores the tool’s core files. So, even if I have to process multiple pages or perform batch operations, the laptop doesn’t need to worry about resource consumption.
Food
Plan meals wisely
Mealie is an underrated gem in my collection because it solves a recurring problem. I’ve slowly learned to cook over the past few years, and Mealy has helped me build a digital collection of recipes I love. Importing recipes into the tool is very easy as I only need the URL to save the recipe content to my home library.
This is better than saving a copy of the recipe page because Food can absorb all the information and present it in an easy-to-see format. It charts all the ingredients with exact measurements, so there’s little chance of confusion. I can plan my weekly meals in advance and slowly build up a collection of favorite recipes. One thing to note about Mealie is that its memory usage is on the higher side. It used about 300 MB or more and is among the top three in the memory consumption list.
No need to visit sketch sites
Omnitools offers several PDF-related features, but not as comprehensive as BentoPDF. However, the reason I keep Omnitools on a laptop server is because of its extensive suite of media, document, and conversion tools. It has a tool for almost every task I could ever need, and it protects personal files from being uploaded to sketchy free tool sites.
My two main priorities are converting files to different formats and performing image-related tasks such as background removal and compression. Omnitools perfectly copes with all these tasks and does not falter even during batch processing of files. It works in the same way as BentoPDF and all processing happens on the client side.
Nextcloud and Immich
Local cloud storage and image management
If, like me, you avoid storing your personal data in cloud services, The next cloud can be of great help. Yes, it’s a bit harsh on system resources, but since it’s a laptop and not an SBC, I don’t find the experience particularly unpleasant. I use the tool to sync my data from my main system and several other devices including my phone to my laptop. My old laptop has enough memory for personal files and I can connect multiple hard drives or upgrade the memory if the file sizes grow. I keep a hard drive connected to it to provide wireless access to its files.
There is an additional Google Photos alternative that I use alongside Nextcloud to view my photos. Immich it’s an exceptional tool and the largest storage pool on my laptop that allows me to access photos directly from my Nextcloud instance. It offers several features and tools that are not available in the Nextcloud image tool. OCR is one such example where Immich excels, and I can use text search to find a related photo.
My old laptop is still useful
Instead of throwing away my first laptop or selling it for a pittance on eBay, I built a locally available personal software server. Memory and computing resources are not a problem, since there are not five or more users at the same time. I use Mealie, Nextcloud, and Immich on a daily basis, and Omnitools, BentoPDF, and other tools occasionally come in handy. The best part is that I don’t have to deal with ads and pop-ups while using them, and my data stays on my machine.
- OS
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Windows, macOS, Linux
- Key points
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Self-hosted, open source
Nextcloud is a self-managed Google Drive alternative with tons of tools and customization.
