By Lou Dolinar
Updated Feb. 14, 2006

At this time of year, when you're thinking about buying a new computer, you should also be thinking about what you're going to do with the old one.

Since you can buy a decent new system for $400, it isn't worth investing much in Old Betsy. Still, if you have a broadband connection, hooking up a second PC is essentially free, and you now have a serviceable backup workstation and fewer fights over who gets to use the computer.

The first thing you might try is reformatting and reloading all your software - absolutely worth it with any PC that runs faster than 500 megahertz. I've collected a half-dozen anecdotes in the past few months that suggest a lot of salvageable PCs are being thrown out because of spyware, adware and virus infestations. (This a conspiracy between spyware authors and teenagers who download infested MP3 files and want new computers.) In case your kids are pitching you this line, keep in mind thatmalicious software, or malware, can so thoroughly gum up a computer - particularly an older one - it makes it unusable.

The never-fail solution is to strip off all your data, which you're going to transfer anyway to your new PC, reformat the drive and reload your old software, including whatever Windows version you have, from your original discs. Don't load any programs or Windows components you don't absolutely need. If you're too lazy or inexperienced to do this, you should be able to hire someone: Best Buy has a "Geek Squad" for these kinds of repairs, as does Office Depot. Save the new computer for all the fun multimedia stuff, stick to Web browsing and e-mail on your older unit, and you'll be surprised how well it will work. Resist the impulse to update Windows or any of your software on the old PC unless it absolutely quits working - upgrades invariably consume more memory and processing power and can provoke incompatibilities with older software.

Option No. 2 is to convert the older system to Linux. This is an alternative operating system to Windows created by thousands of talented programmers who don't like the Microsoft monopoly. There are various versions of Linux that are free for downloading, along with many free, open-source programs such as Open Office. Linux tends to be a tad less demanding of processing power than Windows XP and has many fewer problems with malware, which is incompatible with Linux in fundamental ways. Alas, Linux also is incompatible with regular Windows programs.

The best beginner-oriented package is Xandros Desktop OS Open Circulation edition, which you can download from http://www.xandros.com/about/downloads.html. The easy download is via the Web and costs $10, or you can use Bittorrent peer-to peer-networking to get it for free, with the company's blessing. You can, of course, buy upgrade versions, but that misses the point of cheap computing.

Your old PC can also turn into an R&D computer, particularly if your kids are interested in messing around with PCs on their own terms. For example, there's an excellent Linux release, SmoothWall (www.smoothwall.org), that converts an old PC into a firewall and router, with much heftier security than you find on the average $99 dedicated router, yet it is specifically designed for beginners. Trust me, a kid who understands what's involved in setting up a firewall and router has a future.

Damn Small Linux (www.damnsmalllinux.org), which looks a bit like a hybrid between old character-based MS-DOS and Windows, is so stingy with computing power that it will run on an old 486DX with 16 megabytes of RAM. It may take some fiddling, but at 50 megabytes for the operating system and a suite of programs, you can fit it, your applications and most data people save on a key drive, and boot up on most any computer built within the past four years. Of course, we've always been big fans of Knoppix Linux (http://www.knoppix.org), which you can load and boot from a CD. Now that I think of it, a key drive with DSL Linux might make a nice Christmas present for a kid who regularly screws up his PC.

How about upgrading the old PC? It's easy to overspend here and end up with an old computer that costs more than a new one. Still, if you can keep your case, keyboard, mouse, graphics card and hard drive, it may pay to upgrade the motherboard, processor and memory. Shop around and you may find a reasonably priced combo deal for less than $100.

Your final option, of course, is to get rid of the old PC. We got a kind note this week from a regular reader, Rob Zopf of the National Cristina Foundation (www.cristina.org) in Westchester. Its Web page has an online donation process to "match equipment to charities and schools that provide training to people with disabilities, students at risk and the economically disadvantaged." Zopf wrote. "We accept donations of Pentium II or newer equipment and peripherals from individuals and businesses. There

are no fees to donors or recipient groups, and we provide donors with a receipt showing the fair-market value for tax purposes."

The foundation has hooked up with various corporate biggies, including Dell, to promote the program. He also reminds us that those of us in a pitching, as opposed to a giving, mood that many computer manufacturers have their own recycling programs available through their Web sites.