Old Computer Challenge 2026

July 5, 2026

After missing the challenge for the last few years, and catching up later by reading the various blog posts, 2026 is finally the year I wake up in time to catch the train! If you don't know what the Old Computer Challenge is, have a look at the official page. I'll be updating this page as the week goes by.

The challenge this year is to make something. To keep in line with the challenge name, I'll attempt to do so with an old computer... And an old smartphone, too! The computer I'll be using is a Compaq Presario CQ60. It has a Sempron CPU sporting a single AMD K8 core running at 2.1GHz. It's accompanied by 2GB of DDR2 memory at 533MT/s, and an integrated GeForce 8200M GPU. This thing is slow, but a lightweight Debian install and an SSD help make the most of it.

To spice things up a bit, I'll put my iPhone in a drawer for the week and replace it with a Sony Xperia XA2 running the latest Android thanks to Lineage OS. The real spicy thing about it is that I didn't install Google Play Services on it. I only have MicroG instead. As for the making part, I'll attempt to work on one or both of 2 software:

Vault, an "opinionated web-based file manager" I've been working on for some time. Progress has mostly slowed to a crawl since I realized SFTP is probably better suited to what I've been trying to achieve. But I still like to use it from time to time.
The Perl script I use to transform my blog from a bunch of Markdown files to an actual HTML website. The idea would be to add a Markdown to Gemtext function to it so that I can publish my blog articles also on my Gemini capsule.

Given that my job usually takes a pretty big part of my time and energy during the week, I don't expect much progress on any of these 2 objectives, but we shall see!

Day 1

I did not use the computer much during day 1, but from what I did use it, it seems adequate for everything but JavaScript heavy websites. Well, that's not a surprise, really. At least it has enough RAM to load the heavy pages without touching swap. Actually, watching the RAM counter and hearing the fan ramp up while the CPU is slowly churning through the JS is a fun past-time.

The little Xperia did see more serious use, though, as expected for one's main smartphone in this day and age. I already experimented with it last year in this very software configuration, so I knew that it would handle most things just fine. I can browse the web, read and send emails, do instant messaging, listen to music and podcasts, heck, even my bank, bus and gym apps work fine on it. Those ones were installed through Aurora Store though, because they are not available on F-Droid. Last year, there was one pain point: geopositioning. It would work just fine after a fresh Lineage install, but would mysteriously stop working after the first OTA update. At the time, I believe Lineage OS 23.0 was current. I flashed a fresh 23.2 a few days ago, and won't attempt any OTA update because I don't keep a fond memory of trying to find my way without geopositioning. Happened once and it's enough. I use Organic Maps for my GPS needs, it's the best app I could find for the job on F-Droid. Speaking of geopositioning, I have to admit that Apple's and Google's services are quite advanced compared to just talking with satellites. For instance, those services can find your position while you are indoor, while my Xperia won't find it as soon as I have a roof on top of my head. Being outside or on a roof is mandatory. Also, they find the position very fast, while I've had to wait up to a minute sometimes with my setup. Those are small annoyances that make geopositioning impractical to use when you need to check things quickly, like a weather app, for instance. It makes geopositioning a deliberate thing. Which is a good thing, in fact.