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How and why I stopped buying new laptops

solar.lowtechmagazine.com

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Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#211

Post by andrei_says_ »

ogre_codes wrote: post #22

This story works well for a professional writer. If you are a professional developer/ video editor/ audio professional, or any number of other professions that lean heavier on the hardware they use, it's quite different. If buying new hardware is going to substantially improve my work-day, I'm going to buy new hardware. With the pace of modern hardware improvement, the time between purchases is longer, but there is s…

Pro dev rocking MacBook Pro 2015 here. I use it for full stack rails, js, front end design including photoshop. And for photography - capture one photoshop Lightroom etc.

I use MagSafe, SD card slot, USB ports daily, and the full size hdmi port weekly. The keyboard is wearing out, and the battery cycles are in the hundreds but everything just works.

That feeling that you get when you accidentally walk at full speed through your charger’s cable and you know nothing bad is going to happen? I get it about once a week.

I may upgrade to an m1 mb pro 16 but I’d still have to swallow the downgrade in port functionality and the touch bar monstrosity.

Apple has been designing primarily for cheap efficient production and maximum profit - for a long time now.

Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#212

Post by brewdad »

waiseristy wrote: post #127
ThePhysicist wrote: post #70

IMHO, the Thinkpad T430 was one of the worst T-series laptops Lenovo ever produced. Mine barely lasted 3 years and had to be serviced multiple times as the screen hinges broke and the fan became super loud, among other things. The T460p which I use now is much better. I'm currently testing a T490 as a replacement, which seems quite nice as well but has some annoying features (glossy display, integrated smaller batter…

Interesting you had such a bad experience with your T430. Mine served me faithfully for almost 8 years without a single issue. Even took quite a few hits that would have destroyed most other laptops. Upgraded to a t490 and also have had 0 issues with that, though it does seem to be a bit more fragile

I picked up a T430 from eBay for less than $300 about 4-5 years ago. It worked great for me for a couple of years until it developed a weird issue that would freeze randomly under Windows. I never had the issue when using Linux. Since I needed Windows for a few applications, I handed it down to my son. He's been running Arch on it without issue to this day.

Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#213

Post by dingaling »

rsync wrote: post #210
pengaru wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Thin, light, very portable, USB ports on each side, headphone jack and an external monitor port (in this case, thunderbolt). Welcome to ~2004 in IBM ThinkPad X-series land, IBM "solved the laptop form factor" ~4 years prior to Apple's Air. And even before that Sony's PCG-Z505 delivered most of this in a robust and lightweight magnesium package.

"Welcome to ~2004 in IBM ThinkPad X-series land, IBM "solved the laptop form factor" ~4 years prior to Apple's Air." No. What goes without saying in my original comment was the fact that the MBA has an aluminum unibody. Aluminum (or other metal) unibody cases represented a major step forward in aesthetics, substance and durability. I don't care how interesting the thinkpads are (and they are interesting ) - I am not…

> I am not going backwards to plastic.

And yet the aviation industry, obsessed with lightness and durability, is eliminating aluminium in favour of plastics with each successive generation.

Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#215

Post by prodent »

pengaru wrote: post #17

The X60 ThinkPads TFA settles on are the pinnacle of the X-series ThinkPad form factor. That's not just any old laptop, and if my situation is any indication, the author wouldn't hesitate one moment if offered a brand new X60 specimen with a stronger less crack-prone chassis material and modern SoC+LED-lit LCD. Unfortunately no such thing is currently available.

Like an X62 or X210 from 51nb?

https://www.facebook.com/lcdfans/

Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#216

Post by pengaru »

rsync wrote: post #210
pengaru wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Thin, light, very portable, USB ports on each side, headphone jack and an external monitor port (in this case, thunderbolt). Welcome to ~2004 in IBM ThinkPad X-series land, IBM "solved the laptop form factor" ~4 years prior to Apple's Air. And even before that Sony's PCG-Z505 delivered most of this in a robust and lightweight magnesium package.

"Welcome to ~2004 in IBM ThinkPad X-series land, IBM "solved the laptop form factor" ~4 years prior to Apple's Air." No. What goes without saying in my original comment was the fact that the MBA has an aluminum unibody. Aluminum (or other metal) unibody cases represented a major step forward in aesthetics, substance and durability. I don't care how interesting the thinkpads are (and they are interesting ) - I am not…

In case you're unaware, many ThinkPads use magnesium alloys quite extensively and just use plastic in areas like the keyboard keys and palmrest.

The X220 I'm typing this on is built like a tank, and I'm quite appreciative the palmrest and keyboard keys at least aren't a thermally conductive metal like the rest of the machine.

Doesn't your MBA use plastic keys as well?

Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#217

Post by baumandm »

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…

The problem with this line of reasoning is you are using a specific outcome to criticize an entire process:

Apple failed to produce an iteratively superior product, therefore their process is "fiddle and fuddle."

Their process of innovation and iterative improvement brought us the Macbook Air and so many other great products. It seems very short-sighted to claim a particular model is the pinnacle of design and user-experience and they should quit now.

Will they always succeed? Certainly not. Should they keep trying? Definitely.

Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#218

Post by aidenn0 »

ogre_codes wrote: post #155
aidenn0 wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think apple has this reputation because even if they keep a port for 10 years, that means 20% of the people get their first apple product within 2 years of the port disappearing

This still makes no sense. USB connectors for smartphones have gone through 3-4 different iterations in that same time depending on the make. If you bought Samsung, you likely went through a year or two with that god-awful USB 3.0 "Micro-B" connector.

My first smartphone was a Palm Pre in 2009 that took a micro USB. I recently (this year) got my first smartphone with a USB-C connector and all of the ones in the interim used micro USB.

As far as computers, I have had USB A on all of the laptops I've ever owned, and gone through 2 display connectors (DVI, and HDMI). The laptop I'm currently typing this on has a VGA connector, should I need it. My wife, who uses macs has had a different display connector for every laptop going back to her G4.

For desktops, I wouldn't be surprised to see a PS/2 connector on the back of my computer, though I haven't looked and I know my second most recent one had a PS/2 connector. Heck, my motherboard has a firewire pin-header, which is absurd because that standard had approximately zero popularity on PCs in the first place!

Apple has much more abrupt changes. I don't think there was a single Mac that shipped with both ADB and USB ports, and it was about a year from the first iMac with USB, and the last Mac Pro with ADB shipping.

This abruptness is possible because Apple controls much more of the ecosystem than anybody does in the PC world. I think I had USB ports on my computer for 3-ish years before I ever used the for anything at all (thumb drives weren't really a thing yet, and I had no need to upgrade my mouse or keyboard). For a long time mice would implement both USB and PS/2 and come with an adapter to let them plug into either.

Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#219

Post by tdeck »

ogre_codes wrote: post #22

This story works well for a professional writer. If you are a professional developer/ video editor/ audio professional, or any number of other professions that lean heavier on the hardware they use, it's quite different. If buying new hardware is going to substantially improve my work-day, I'm going to buy new hardware. With the pace of modern hardware improvement, the time between purchases is longer, but there is s…

I don't know, I've had the same business-class HP ultrabook as my personal machine for the last 7 years. It can barely play Minecraft on medium graphics but it's basically done every software development task I've cared to throw at it. Granted I'm not doing deep learning or building the Linux kernel but for building web applications it's fine. It is extremely slow at running the Android emulator, however.

Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#220

Post by pjmlp »

Typing this on a 2009 laptop maxed out to 8GB and a SSD, with a NVidia card (DX 11).

Runs Windows 10 Pro just fine, alongside VS 2019 (.NET/C++ workloads), Eclipse, Netbeans, Office, all modern browsers, the card is more than capable to handle WebGL 2.0 can achieve.

No need to keep buying shiny toys every 2 years, specially when one doesn't buy into container fashion trend.

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