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Ask HN: What's your personal hardware EOL policy?

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Ask HN: What's your personal hardware EOL policy?

#1

Post by CoreSet »

I'm very much in the "if it's not broke, don't fix it" camp, which means I have several long-lived devices, including a 2015-era MacBook Pro and an even older Mac Mini.

Despite this, I'm realizing I want to make the move before these old systems break down, especially so I can make sure the old files are transferred over and old passwords synced to new devices.

Is 10 years enough to call it quits on a laptop? Especially now that we've all weathered the MacBook touch bar fiasco.

Re: Ask HN: What's your personal hardware EOL policy?

#3

Post by nicbou »

I believe in only buying things I really need and using them until they are no longer usable.

Then I sell them for a really low price to give them a second life in another household. Leaving devices lying around unused until they become electronic waste is a sin against the environment.

Re: Ask HN: What's your personal hardware EOL policy?

#6

Post by al_borland »

I try to keep fairly up to date. Selling old stuff to offset the cost of the new thing, while it still has some decent value in it. That said, my upgrade intervals have increased over the past several years. I still need to feel like I'm getting something out of the upgrade.

I did find out the other day one of my Apple TVs is obsolete according to Apple's website. But it still does everything I need and seems to still get updates (which makes me question its obsolete status). I don't see the newer model doing anything I can't do on my current one, so I'm not going to bother upgrading until that changes somehow.

Re: Ask HN: What's your personal hardware EOL policy?

#7

Post by mikewarot »

Computers these days are fast enough for almost everything I want to do, except running big LLMs locally. I'm running a used workstation given to me by a friend a few years ago. I tend to run things into the ground. I'm not hugely worried about security, as I'm retired, and pretty much have nothing worth stealing.

I use Backblaze to keep my data safe, and it's saved my bacon more than once.

I'll be switching to Linux once Windows 10 goes EOL for good. I've got to figure out how to migrate away from WikidPad, or fix it to work with Linux before that date. It's the thing that stopped me a few years ago when I had to migrate back.

Re: Ask HN: What's your personal hardware EOL policy?

#9

Post by toast0 »

> Despite this, I'm realizing I want to make the move before these old systems break down, especially so I can make sure the old files are transferred over and old passwords synced to new devices.

Sounds like you need a data backup policy more than a hardware EOL policy.

If your data is secure, run it until it dies, or you need more than it can do.

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