How can I put old Ubuntu CDs to good use?

I have a fair number of older Ubuntu CDs sitting around for releases that are not supported anymore. They have beautiful pressed labels and sleeves that I would hate to just throw away.

What can I do with them?

Solution 1:

I would use them, possibly with a clear plastic coating/wrapper, as a 'set' of drink coasters for entertaining. I had some old CDs that I printed labels for that read (in proper album cover art fonts) "This is a Coaster, Vol. I" and "This is a Coaster, Vol. II", etc. They made me smile all the time and I got some great comments from guests. It would rank up there with the hard drive clock as far as geek decor.

Solution 2:

Stick them to a wall, on a large frame, for decoration.

Solution 3:

eBay!

On a more serious note, you can use them to test older releases that are still supported for bugs and whatnot. It's also possible some machines may not be able to handle more recent versions of Ubuntu, and these would be perfect. Or use them to take a trip down memory lane and see how the releases have changed. Or you can get creative and build something out of all of the discs - who knows. ;)

I'm in the same boat: I've got discs as far back as 5.10. Even have some 6.10 discs that never actually made it to shipping to the masses. I'd say they're definitely worth holding on to: you never know what might come up.

Solution 4:

If you come into contact with older hardware they may come in use! I built computers from a variety of hardware and having an older version or two of Ubuntu made things much easier than trying to figure out just what exactly wasn't supported in the newer versions.