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How and why I stopped buying new laptops

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Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#51

Post by chrisseaton »

rsync wrote: post #9

The 11" Macbook Air solved the laptop form factor. Thin, light, very portable, USB ports on each side , headphone jack and an external monitor port (in this case, thunderbolt). Could there be some refinements to my 2015 MBA ? Certainly - the two type-A USB ports could remain type A but be upgraded to USB3 ... you could add a USB-C port on each side in place of the magsafe and lightning ports and gain the ability to c…

But like most people I don't want or need legacy USB or headphone ports any more - so makes sense to refine the model and remove them to simplify?

If we took your advice they'd still have the old serial and parallel ports on them!

Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#52

Post by tempodox »

MeinBlutIstBlau wrote: post #7
mlacks wrote: post #6

> If you do graphical or audiovisual work, it’s more complicated, because in that case, you’re probably an Apple user and unwilling to listen. Well that’s too bad. Sounds like the author just didn’t have the experience or energy to give advice to windows/ Linux users like myself that do audio/ graphical work. I was really interested in seeing what he had to offer. I personally use an NEC Lavie Hybrid Zero to make my…

I only use OSS for my entire workflow. KDENLive is the best video editor imo but OSS video editors are still pretty bad. Shortcut is stable but it's basically iMovie circa 2011. Audacity is great. No qualms there. Krita is the king of photoshop clones. Makes gimp look like garbage.

Shortcut

It's named “shotcut”, without the “r”.

Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#53

Post by WalterBright »

jjeaff wrote: post #31
chiefalchemist wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That word is: lack of market research. I recently finished up shopping for a Windows laptop. It took awhile, as I balanced price with features. You'd be shock how many otherwise decently config'ed offerings lacked a key and basic feature (e.g., backlit KB), or was deficient in some key way (e.g., mid-priced models with only 8 GB RAM soldered, no ability to upgrade). I agree. Some might not need backlit or more than 8…

I don't think it's that so much as the need to convince consumers to upgrade as often as possible even when what they have already works perfectly. I think they actually do a lot of market research. They know that people like you and I might buy a good product that meets our needs and keep it for 5 years or more. But the bulk of their profits are coming from people who have to buy the newest whizbang model - and it h…

If they want to impress me, a better display would do it. I have an endless desire for more pixels and more resolution.

Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#54

Post by veddox »

At the moment, all my computing hardware was bought refurbed (Thinkpad T420, iPhone SE, iPad Pro 1). You have to make sure you find a serious reseller, but if you do, you pay a quarter of the price for high-quality hardware.

I‘m particularly pleased with my Thinkpad: built in 2011, I bought it in early 2017. Plopped in an SSD and 8 GB extra RAM, total cost ~300€. Runs beautifully.

Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#55

Post by raunakdag »

dmichulke wrote: post #35
rsync wrote: post #9

The 11" Macbook Air solved the laptop form factor. Thin, light, very portable, USB ports on each side , headphone jack and an external monitor port (in this case, thunderbolt). Could there be some refinements to my 2015 MBA ? Certainly - the two type-A USB ports could remain type A but be upgraded to USB3 ... you could add a USB-C port on each side in place of the magsafe and lightning ports and gain the ability to c…

In German you have verschlimmbessern - making something worse in an attempt to improve it

Has anyone else noticed that when conversations about “we need x word for y concept” arise, the German language nearly always seems to be the one that has something similar or already present?

Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#56

Post by jhoechtl »

raunakdag wrote: post #55
dmichulke wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In German you have verschlimmbessern - making something worse in an attempt to improve it

Has anyone else noticed that when conversations about “we need x word for y concept” arise, the German language nearly always seems to be the one that has something similar or already present?

I can confirm that verschlimmbessern is a perfect fit to describe the situation.

Englisch took Angst and Zeitgeist. Take that one too?

Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#57

Post by fakedang »

Who tf be spending 1600 Euros on a laptop? Bruh... And who substitutes that with a 2006 version laptop? face-palm

Like another comment down below mentions, companies toss away perfectly good laptops after a year or two, which can be bought in the ballpark of 150-300 quid/euros/USD. They'll last 2-3 years on average, and even longer if you aren't into intensive activities. Just go to some IT guy in a multinational - I remember my old firm had stacks of ThinkPads piled all the way up. Some companies even have old MBPs at hand.

Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#58

Post by agumonkey »

karaterobot wrote: post #12
rsync wrote: post #9

The 11" Macbook Air solved the laptop form factor. Thin, light, very portable, USB ports on each side , headphone jack and an external monitor port (in this case, thunderbolt). Could there be some refinements to my 2015 MBA ? Certainly - the two type-A USB ports could remain type A but be upgraded to USB3 ... you could add a USB-C port on each side in place of the magsafe and lightning ports and gain the ability to c…

> We need to actually coin a word to describe "company solved their use-case wonderfully and can't resist fiddling around with it for reasons that don't align with their user-base*. Can't help coin a new word, but Ralph Caplan described this phenomenon really well. I'm a (software) designer, and I think about this all the time: > When cuffs disappeared from men’s trousers, fashion designers gave interviews explaining…

It's indeed the differential nature of markets. People have a finite memory capacity.. once they forgot that trousers used to have cuffs.. you can reintroduce it as novelty.

-- Marcus Aurelius

Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#59

Post by jhoechtl »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #46
LeifCarrotson wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd argue too much, not too little market research is the problem. They just have wrong (ok, misaligned) objectives. Soldered RAM is invisible on the table at Best Buy, but the price savings to the manufacturer are very visible on their balance sheet. In fact, a laptop that becomes useless and you need to upgrade from 8 GB soldered RAM to one with 16 GB soldered RAM after 2 years is more than twice as profitable as o…

Perhaps. But more landfill trash? That sounds like a 20th Century business model. But to your point, let's take it a step further. Most people aren't going to bother to upgrade their RAM. It's likely they won't even know. Even so after three years they'll want some new feature. But who do you give that to? At least if the RAM could be upgraded, it could have some added use. I'm not so sure that bonus round is being f…

Economy and ethics is not a partnership made in heaven.

Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#60

Post by ethbr0 »

chrisseaton wrote: post #51
rsync wrote: post #9

The 11" Macbook Air solved the laptop form factor. Thin, light, very portable, USB ports on each side , headphone jack and an external monitor port (in this case, thunderbolt). Could there be some refinements to my 2015 MBA ? Certainly - the two type-A USB ports could remain type A but be upgraded to USB3 ... you could add a USB-C port on each side in place of the magsafe and lightning ports and gain the ability to c…

But like most people I don't want or need legacy USB or headphone ports any more - so makes sense to refine the model and remove them to simplify? If we took your advice they'd still have the old serial and parallel ports on them!

The best hardware targets are "what your users are using" + "extrapolated upgrades over the lifecycle of your product."

E.g. why Steam regularly does this https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey

I think it's fair to say that dropping the 3.5mm was way in advance of the user population.

As was dropping function and special keys.

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