Artyom Bologov4d ago

I am indecisive about this post: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2020/12/how-and-why-i-stopped-buying-new-laptops/

On the one hand, it does make sense to buy used high-quality repairable machines instead of new replaceable glued garbage.

But, on the other hand, does it really make sense buying an extremely old laptop AND two more for spare parts because getting these parts is hard? This feels like an unnecessary multiplication of e-waste to me.

My approach is: I’m using my extremely underpowered 2020 Lenovo Thinkpad for the longest possible time and then I get an X220 from 2011, because that’s the last model with a good keyboard that’s still relatively powerful enough to handle my type of computing, and roughly the same specs as the current one, in fact. But it’s a hard sell even to me, because computing is heavyweight in a general case. Might be quite inconvenient with such a laptop, especially in two or three years from now.

Time for a SIMD-powered application stack anyone?

How and Why I Stopped Buying New Laptops

As a freelance journalist – or an office worker if you wish – I have always believed that I should regularly buy a new laptop. But older machines offer more quality for much less money.

LOW←TECH MAGAZINE
Show threadJay4d ago

@aartaka I'm curious what kind of computing can be done on such old hardware? 2011 is almost 15 years old, surely nothing modern can run on that?

I am honestly curious.

Where I do buy used devices often, I tend to buy barely used ones that are released within the last year or two, and then use them until they break.

Basically saving them from landfill.

I've not used something from 2011 in a very long time.

Show threadEF
@r3spawndbae @aartaka the most modern laptop I have is an x230. It runs #alpinelinux (one runs #voidlinux) easily (lots of free RAM and low CPU usage) with a Firefox clone, Libreoffice, fullscreen video, even Roblox via a Flatpak with ease. It is 100% repairable with lots of spares available. For most/many users, that's all they need.
Apr 10 at 2:09pmWeb
Show threadJay3d ago
@EF @aartaka This sounds very good. I've not tried Alpine Linux, but I'll give it a look, as I'm thinking of probably moving to Linux from macOS when I buy my next computer.