@d6 For about 2/3 of my PhD work, the computer I used at home was what I called "my zero-cost computer". It was a frankenputer from various discarded bits. Before it was finished, I gave in and paid $25 for a CD drive because while I *could* load Slackware from floppies, it seemed easier to load RedHat from a CD. Later, I also paid for a Cyrix 5x86 to upgrade the processor.

I replaced it when a bearing in the hard drive went, and the read/write head left a nice gouge in one of the platters.