I hate to see things collect dust or go to waste. In business and in life, my favourite thing is "the underutilized resource", as it always means the availability of more capacity for work without any increased cost. That's a beautiful thing, no?

Along that line of thinking, here are some ideas of things you can do with a secondary computer.

Build a Spare Computer

Wipe it, format it, install a fresh OS, and all the applications you use. Get it connected to the Internet, patch the hell out of everything, and then turn it off and put it in a corner. If your main system ever dies, you can flip a switch and be running within minutes. Having a cold spare is quite reassuring.

Personally, I run older toughbook laptops with a cold spare drive "ready and waiting." Excepting my file server, any of my computers or drives could die and, depending on what I was doing that moment, it would probably be about as inconvenient as a spilled coffee or maybe a broken flower pot.

Cold spares can save your ass. Big time. There is a military saying that goes like this:

"Two is one, one is none."

Get it?

Try an Open Source Operating System

Are you still running Windows or Apple operating systems? My condolences! Not ready to switch to Linux or better yet, BSD? Well, dip your toe into the open source world by running something different on your second computer. Try out Debian Linux, or Ubuntu .. or ReactOS .. or all three. This is a no-risk way to get exposure to the alternatives out there. There are some absolutely beautiful distributions: they look GREAT, they perform well and they provide, by default, tools that Windows/Mac users can only dream of.

Once you've cut your teeth a little on the more beginner-friendly linux distributions, graduate to the BSDs. The BSDs are like that good advice your father gave you that you never understood until it was too late. Of the BSDs, OpenBSD is my favorite. It's not the most popular. It's not the most performance oriented. It's not the sexiest.

But it's the boss.

Build a File Server

A file server is a computer that stores and serves files. Formerly limited to corporate use, file servers are now seen in homes worldwide. Many of them come as small, single-drive enclosures, or all-in-one multi-drive designs like those from Synology. There is no need to be fancy: any computer can act as a file server.

Why do you want this? Well, for one, if you store all of your data files on a file server, your workstation becomes "disposable", in that if you were to lose it, you would not lose your data. This is nice for things like a broken hard drive, and also great for people who like to distro-hop, or change their operating system on a regular basis. I wipe my workstation every six months or so and re-build it from scratch. It takes about an hour and is mostly done via scripts.

Keep in mind, the drive in the file server is just as likely to fail as the one in your computer (moreso if it is older.) You need to take steps (like a second drive, or RAID) to protect yourself against drive failure, if you actually use the file server in a production environment, or if it's important to you.

Build a Web Server / Intranet Server

If you're on Steem, odds are good you're at least somewhat technically ahead of the curve. Why not run your own web server? In this way, you can do local development, test things out before pushing them to a web host .. or just learn things, like database-enabled web sites, scripting languages, and all sorts of other things you cannot generally do. As an educational tool, a local web server is a great gateway to other technologies. Back in the day (which for me was the nineties), I spent many an hour at a unix prompt, learning apache, perl, and all the other bits that make the Internet work. Better than any university course.

A web server is the start, of course. Once you've got that .. why not a local mail server? How about a proxy server? Maybe an FTP server, or go old school and deploy gopher! Having access to local, fully-modifiable server software is incredibly educational: you'll accelerate your learning by having access to local instances of server software. You've heard of apache, and php: why not run your own instances and see how they work?! Why not a local DNS server? How about some intrusion detection?!

Build a Torrent Box

You torrent, right? You're not wasting your unlimited Internet .. you're HAMMERING it, downloading reams of documentaries, books, educational content, old movies .. right? RIGHT?!

Build a torrent box.
Fire up that VPN.
Spend a few hours queuing up whatever's on offer that interests you.

And then .. download. Download, my Steemian friend .. download like a starving fat kid would eat ice cream at an all-you-can-eat ice cream buffet. Download until your ISP threatens to cut you off. Download until your roommates text you "dude wtf." Download until Hollywood goes broke. Download until you've heard so many genres of music that you can't even RELATE to the average music fan because your knowledge is so vast and wide, you'd just have nothing to talk about!!

Build a Retro Gaming Console

Do you remember the glory days of the Atari, and Nintendo? Miss them? Well, with a little software, you can have yourself a fully featured console with very little work. The number of emulators seemingly increases by the day, and they are easy to use and simple to make work.

Build a Dedicated Music/video Server

This is pretty much a file server plugged into a television. Software like Kodi and Plex provide you with a clean interface to your media. Personally, I've always liked mplayer and the command line, but for those of you who DON'T like to operate everything from a terminal, software like Kodi and Plex provide absolutely gorgeous interfaces to your media. Really nice stuff!

Build a Bitcoin Miner / Crypto Rig

To be honest, I know nothing of bitcoin miners, but the idea of using an old computer to do it seems like a really bad one. Mostly, I put this in here so I could tag the post to the crypto categories, as they are HOT, baby!! Blockchain technology is just mind blowing.

Build an Open Source Firewall

With a secondary computer, a couple of network cards, and a little elbow grease, you can have yourself a secure, open source firewall: one that you can have a lot more confidence in than your typical cable model or wifi router. Check out this article for more information:

https://steemit.com/technology/@xwalkran/improve-your-computer-security-build-your-own-firewall

All of the Above

A secondary computer can serve all sorts of functions: there is no reason you couldn't do all of the above on a single computer. Although I would not suggest loading up your firewall with all sorts of (potentially insecure) software, it can be done!

And just how in the hell do I do all that?

To get started, decide what you want to do, and then visit distrowatch.org. Find an operating system (probably Linux or BSD) that matches what you want to do. Download it, burn it to CD/USB, and install it on your second computer, after having backed up anything you don't want to lost.

Once you've got the operating system up and running, start installing additional software, if needed. There are many guides out there for this, and I am sure your search engine skills are up to the task. Often, once you have the operating system up and running, the hard work is done. Adding software only takes a command or two, and configuration is easy: HOWTOs and guides exist for damned near everything.

That second computer of yours is bored. Put her to work!