I keep resisting the urge to buy one of the older devices. I like the idea of a grayscale display that my old eyes can see in sunlight and the 'prepper' side of me likes re-chargeable double AA's.

I'm looking for some kind of new display that fits nice and will then run from a pizero. Issue is the odd screen size I can't find a good match

My brother has a windows vista operating system. Ever since MS discontinued support for it, other programs stop supporting upgrades as well. He couldn't upgrade to the latest google chrome browser and the adobe flash player. He can't even upgrade to windows 10 because his computer is not supported drivers wise of curse. He purchased this HP computer in 2005.

I told him to try linux. But he refuses. He's attached to microsoft and windows like a person with a ball and chain. The problem with my brother is he is a penny pincher. He feels as long as his computer is working, he doesn't need another. Go figure.

Your brother may be correct: he may have perfectly fine hardware there. Sooner or later Vista will go bad on him. (A malware explosion, application death, etc.) but the hardware will still work. At that time mention Linux again and he may be more receptive.
(If you have a few live-cd images on a USB key so he can try them without installing, it may make him more comfortable. I keep a E2B - Easy 2 Boot key with about 20 distros ready, just in case.)

Yeah, It's still early for vista to really become unsafe and unusable when many more applications will stop upgrading as well.

He'll have to upgrade to a new computer sooner or later or try linux on that old computer. I would take it off his hands after he gets a new one, but I am not a big fan of old technology computer hardware.

I am opposite to my brother. When I get a new computer, I keep a few parts that are salvageable from the old computer and throw the rest away.

80 Gb HD on sale locally for 20 bucks with tax and transportation approx., not sure how long it will last, so will pass on this.

This is an interesting approach to reflect upon.

I used to keep lots and lots of computer peripherals, computer parts, cables. etc like a stamp collector for his stamps.

I only threw away items that I felt I wasn't going to use anymore like the dated IDE drives, IDE cables, old ram DIMMs. etc.

It cab hurt sometimes to get rid of them, but it takes wasted space. Anyway, everybody has their own internal barometer on how much clutter is enough for them. :-]

Prisoners use old computer parts, to build and use illegally computer in prison:
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/12/us...rnd/index.html

Using $20 laptop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdJ6BbvTw-s

Nice watch.

Point Linux for Older PCs:
http://pointlinux.org/

I can see setting one up as a hardware firewall
to block IN AND OUT from this list of addresses
http://forums.peerblock.com/read.php?8,14794,15607
using a non systemd distro

I'm afraid I don't understand?
Setting up an old PCas a firewall is, in most people's cases, a waste of electricity.
The link refers to a list of government domains which,as far as I am aware, has always been public knowledge.
The init system used is largely irrelevant to most users.

well it dose mean that a cracker would have to compromise 2 systems
and would do a lot better than windoze built in firewall
so if what ever really really needs to be protected it most likely would make it more trouble than it's worth to crack in
I have a deep distrust of systemd when it comes to the U.S.government

Computer Pioneer involved with creating Personal Computer and Internet Dies:

http://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/repo...-at-85-2404013
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert...uter_scientist)

Edited to Add:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARPANET
Helps to know above in context.

Very touching.