Laptop running Ubuntu

[NeedMoarFarms]

I've got an old Toshiba Tecra M2 laptop running Ubuntu 8.10. The wifi card in it is busted, so have to use an ethernet cable when I want to connect to the internet. The battery life is atrocious, it will go from 100% to 0% in a matter of an hour, definately something wrong there - I need to almost always use the power cable.

I don't really have much use for it, mainly since I don't know what ubuntu can do, that vista can't really. Compiz, multiple desktops, and the package manager are cool and useful, but the novelty wears off eventually.

I want to make use of this, so what kind of possiblities does ubuntu offer me? Is there anything really useful that I could turn this into, or is it worth buying a new wifi card and battery and selling it on?

Thanks

[directhex]

What specifically do you want your OS to do for you? An OS is a means to an end, not the goal itself

[Zadock]

If its a case of getting some functionality and better performance out of an old laptop you might be better off with the ubuntu distro for legacy hardware, its called Xubuntu.

What kinds of things would you want to do? you could hook it up to your stereo and use it as a jukebox, Ubuntu could do that there are lots of nice media players for linux.