I gave life to my laptop which was collecting dust

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This laptop ---an Asus X504U-- was my main PC since I bought it in 2017.
It’s got an i7-7500U CPU, 12GB of RAM, and a SATA SSD that replaced the original hard drive.

Back in 2020, after upgrading the RAM and SSD, it felt like a brand-new machine.
It booted fast, apps opened instantly --honestly, it was night and day

But fast-forward to 2023...
Windows hit me with the dreaded infinite recovery loop.
And that was it -- the laptop got shelved
I didn’t need it anymore anyway, since I mostly used my desktop


My desktop isn’t anything too fancy,
but it’s more than capable -- Ryzen 5 5600G, 32GB of 3600 MHz RAM,
an Aorus B550 Pro AX motherboard, and a Corsair 750W PSU --
basically, ready for a GPU upgrade when needed

So yeah , there wasn’t much reason to fix the old laptopAt that point, it was just sitting there.

So yeah, with Windows 11 not supporting the i7-7500U, there wasn’t really much I could do with it..
But instead of letting it sit there and collect dust, I figured --why not experiment?


In the last week of July 2025, I installed Linux
Not the usual user-friendly kind --I went full CLI mode

The system boots straight into a terminal --TTY only
When I want a graphical interface,
I manually launch Openbox, my lightweight window manager

There’s no right-click menu, no desktop icons, no Wi-Fi manager —
just the essentials I actually use

I connect to Wi-Fi automatically on boot through wpa_supplicant,
using a config file that already knows my saved networks

When Openbox starts, it opens with just a terminal --Kitty -- the one i currently use
From there, I can launch whatever I need--
for example, I just type snes to open the SNES emulator, ( i created an alias)
or mgba for Game Boy Advance
Even mpv for videos and chromimum for browsing

Some of these apps aren’t terminal-based,
but I like launching them from the terminal 
it keeps everything under my control
I’ve also mapped some shortcuts through rc.xml,
so I can open Chromium or adjust volume with a single hotkey

I don’t keep a clock or battery display on the desktop 
instead, I just type date when I need the time,
or batt ...a small alias I made ...to check battery status

It’s not user friendly to anyone but me
But that’s exactly the point.

Over time, my focus also shifted.

I started out learning Python and JavaScript,
but I eventually got bored with frontend work.

JavaScript felt messy to me — too much abstraction, confusing syntax,
and not enough clarity on what’s actually happening under the hood.

So I moved closer to the system.

Now I enjoy writing Bash scripts — automating my workflow,
building small tools that actually do something on my machine.

And eventually, I want to go deeper into C.

Because C feels different.

It’s not about frameworks or trends —
it’s about understanding how things actually work.

Memory, processes, the system itself.

It’s raw, direct, and powerful.

It’s not powerful by today’s standards,
but with this setup, it runs cleaner and faster than most “modern” machines bogged down by bloat
It just works ---on my terms


My laptop has never felt this fast before.

It’s lean, efficient, and set up exactly the way I like it.

Every keystroke has a purpose —
no bloat, no unnecessary processes running in the background.

It’s not powerful by today’s standards,
but with this setup, it runs cleaner and faster than most “modern” machines bogged down by layers of abstraction.

It just works — on my terms.


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