> My #1 son and I are in mild disagreement. I've got an old Dell laptop > (Latitude 26something) that I've put Xubuntu on and am re-purposing as > a version control server (later internal web server for testing and > probably Dirvish for, well, survival). > > (And yes, using a laptop as a server has a number of strikes against > it. But I don't care, because it cost us exactly $0 to put into > service. We can get our feet wet with this without spending any > capital, and if and when it seems necessary we can shell out some real > dough for a real machine.) > > He's of the opinion that a laptop is gonna break if it's left on all the > time. I'm of the opinion that it's going to be pretty less heavily > loaded than if someone were using it (how much can a working household > with three part-time developers load a server?), and besides it's been > left on for days on end before now, so get outta the way kid and let me > work! > > I've never tried this, so I have to admit that it's an either/or thing > as far as I'm concerned. I'm interested if anyone has any direct > experience, good or bad, with this.
as most people have indicated, heat is the biggest concern. keeping the lid closed will shut off the backlight, but will trap some heat that normally would radiate up through the keyboard. the main thing i'd say is to make sure you blow out the fan/radiator ports before you start this project, and then i'd do some proactive cleaning every few months to see how good of a vacuum cleaner the laptop is. _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list PLUG@lists.pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
