How can I put old Ubuntu CDs to good use?

Question

I have a fair number of older Ubuntu CDs sitting around for releases that are not supported anymore. They have beautiful pressed labels and sleeves that I would hate to just throw away.

What can I do with them?

This would do great as a Community Wiki question. – Marco Ceppi Sep 15 '10 at 15:31 — Marco Ceppi, Sep 15 '10 at 15:31
Excellent point. This is now a community wiki. – ændrük Sep 24 '10 at 15:54 — ændrük, Sep 24 '10 at 15:54

score 9 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 14 '10 at 00:23

I would use them, possibly with a clear plastic coating/wrapper, as a 'set' of drink coasters for entertaining. I had some old CDs that I printed labels for that read (in proper album cover art fonts) "This is a Coaster, Vol. I" and "This is a Coaster, Vol. II", etc. They made me smile all the time and I got some great comments from guests. It would rank up there with the hard drive clock as far as geek decor.

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 15 '10 at 10:00

4

Stick them to a wall, on a large frame, for decoration.

answered Sep 15 '10 at 10:00

lamcro

1,056

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 13 '10 at 23:35

eBay!

On a more serious note, you can use them to test older releases that are still supported for bugs and whatnot. It's also possible some machines may not be able to handle more recent versions of Ubuntu, and these would be perfect. Or use them to take a trip down memory lane and see how the releases have changed. Or you can get creative and build something out of all of the discs - who knows. ;)

I'm in the same boat: I've got discs as far back as 5.10. Even have some 6.10 discs that never actually made it to shipping to the masses. I'd say they're definitely worth holding on to: you never know what might come up.

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 14 '10 at 06:09

2

If you come into contact with older hardware they may come in use! I built computers from a variety of hardware and having an older version or two of Ubuntu made things much easier than trying to figure out just what exactly wasn't supported in the newer versions.

answered Sep 14 '10 at 06:09

SinaCutie

61

True, but then again in cases of older hardware it might be more practical to use some other distro which will work well on older hardware and that is still supported by its developers. For example, a friend of mine got an ancient Gateway desktop formerly running Windows ME at an estate sale, and even 9.04 (the oldest Ubuntu version I had on hand) wouldn't run well on it without graphical glitches and freezing, so I went with TinyCore instead. I'm all for using Ubuntu when I can, but sometimes it's just not the right tool for the job. – Knowledge Cube Mar 27 '12 at 05:13

Bananeweizen · Answer 5 · 2011-07-17T07:52:39.947

If you have some friends or colleagues which have never experienced Ubuntu (but are open for new suggestions), why not just give them the CDs for trying out Ubuntu? If the CDs are nicely labeled they will even make the same professional impression that a Windows CD makes.

On the other hand, if you really want to have friends try out Ubuntu, providing a self burnt image of the current version may lead to a better experience (hardware support etc.). In that case you may still use the sleeves.

BTW: I also remember a blog post from a LoCo meeting, where old CDs where distributed to interested guests. Maybe there is some kind of social event or meeting in your area where you want to give away those CDs?

I'd be wary of handing out old CDs. New users should have the best first experience possible. I like the idea of reusing old sleeves, though. — ændrük, Sep 20 '10 at 21:32

How can I put old Ubuntu CDs to good use?

5 Answers5