Re: Just got a Pi1B. What can you actually do with it these days?

On 06/06/2025 02:04, TronNerd82 wrote:

As the subject header would imply, this morning I got a Raspberry Pi 1
model B from eBay. I was initially tempted to futz around with Slackware
ARM on it, but that distro last supported the Pi 1 in version 14.2,
while the latest stable, 15.0, doesn't support it.
>
Raspberry Pi OS was right out since I recently saw its performance in
the modern day in a recent Jeff Geerling video on YT.
>
So I went with the best possible choice for a fast and reliable OS on
such old hardware: NetBSD.
So far, things have been pretty decent, especially in the TTY. In X11
there's not a whole lot I can run at once, but it's OK for light
websites (as in, SUPER-light - even SearXNG will crash most browsers I
try).
>
But aside from super light work, what can I actually do with this thing?
I doubt emulation's much of an option, and I remember seeing one of
these running Quake, so that might be worthwhile to get working.
>
If you can think of any productive use-cases for an original Pi model B
(not even the B+) let me know, and I'll consider it :-)

 Put on PIOS as a server. Don't run X or any GUI.
 Then its fine for any serverish app.

 Back in the day we used to run obsolescent 366 machines as DNS servers...
 The modern equivalent - a Pi Zero - is great for many things.
One runs my central heating controller.
 Another acts as an audio input to my hifi, that can play any music on my server and some internet radio stations.