iMacs Old Enough to Drive

Yesterday, Francesco and I brought home two 2008 iMacs, the ones with the Core 2 Duo processors. One comes straight from a local radio station, while the other is from the desk of a graphic design studio. These machines inevitably show their age but I think they are still charming. The real dilemma now is figuring out how to give mine a meaningful second life. I have four main options on the table: Home Assistant Dashboard. Write a dedicated application to act as an MQTT bridge and turn the screen into a smart home display. It might be a bit of a waste of potential for a machine like this, but it would be functional for my smart home. OpenBSD playground. Wipe the drive and turn it into a dedicated OpenBSD machine. Offline Writing Machine. Strictly disconnected from the internet. The goal is to create a distraction-free, notification-free environment that is perfect for writing posts for this blog. Retro Media Hub. Restore it to use exclusively as a physical CD player and for syncing…