Tell HN: I used the same computer since 2007 (with minor upgrades) • Hacker News Board

Re: Tell HN: I used the same computer since 2007 (with minor upgrades)

#141

Post by grupthink » Tue, Jun 07, 2022, 5:05 AM UTC

tuyenhx wrote: post #111

grupthink wrote: post #105

I grew up poor. I was raised to use things until they break. Even then, I'll fix them if I can. I'm still rocking a 2007 custom built desktop w/ an overclocked Intel E8500 Core2Duo. In 2012, I upgraded the hd to an SSD and the GPU with an Nvidia GT640, and converted it into a rock solid Hackintosh. My other computer is a 2013 15" Macbook Pro with maxed-out specs that was purchased for me by my company. Both systems a…

I used to have the same thought, and had the same setup with you. Coding with sublime text, training ML via Colab Pro. But one day, when I had to render 1.7 GB photoshop file for my work. It was just too different. My 2015 Mac Pro took me 2h15m to render, and Mac Air M1 just 17m.

It's amazing to me that the passively-cooled Macbook Air can do that. Makes me wonder if M1 iPhone/iPad can handle long-running jobs as well. I'm in the process of converting a torch model to Core ML for fun and I'm curious to know whether the ANE on the M1 iPhone/iPad will handle long-running jobs without thermal throttling.

Re: Tell HN: I used the same computer since 2007 (with minor upgrades)

#142

Post by danybittel » Tue, Jun 07, 2022, 5:07 AM UTC

Not quite that old, but I work (daily) on a workstation from 2013. Apart from a memory bank, nothing broke and it still runs all the newest software I need, including Vulkan or Win10, which wasn't out in 2013 yet. There's no need to update.

In contrast, around that time I also brought an iPad and a Android phone (Galaxy S3 mini), I still use. Both can't be updated for years anymore and barely run the essentials.

Re: Tell HN: I used the same computer since 2007 (with minor upgrades)

#143

Post by elihu » Tue, Jun 07, 2022, 5:08 AM UTC

I feel like technology is at the point where we should be seriously considering the idea of personal computers that are intended to have twenty year usable lifespans. (That includes software stacks.)

Re: Tell HN: I used the same computer since 2007 (with minor upgrades)

#144

Post by taubek » Tue, Jun 07, 2022, 5:11 AM UTC

My desktop is about 13 years old if I'm not mistaken. My last two laptops were refurbished ones.

I still use my old HDD drives as secondary backup.

Re: Tell HN: I used the same computer since 2007 (with minor upgrades)

#145

Post by f1shy » Tue, Jun 07, 2022, 5:13 AM UTC

w10-1 wrote: post #119

Give yourself extra life. Buy the best tools you can. Don't let virtues learned by necessity become the vices that suck up your lifetime. You'll never get the time back that you spend working on unimportant projects, sustaining old builds, placating unhappy people, working on slow computers, etc. Unless it's the fastest way for you to deliver whatever good you have to the world, put it aside, especially if you've inv…

Pretty good piece of advice. Not that you should never repair anything, but thinking about cost/benefit is worth it.

Re: Tell HN: I used the same computer since 2007 (with minor upgrades)

#146

Post by zh3 » Tue, Jun 07, 2022, 5:24 AM UTC

jxramos wrote: post #75

dijit wrote: post #8

I would have kept the same hardware forever too, but for some reason my tools seem to take more and more resources every year. Silly example is gmail, which loaded in 1s on my 2011 MacBook Pro when new, if it load it again today (I just tried) it takes 35 seconds before I can click anything. Another might be everyone’s favourite software to hate on: Teams. On my 2011 MacBook Pro: fans squealing, UI of the OS becomes…

yah this is it; software doesn't stand still unless you use old applications. I've read about folks keeping old systems around to use their old licensed software or some other application they know the ins-and-outs of and can get stuff done on it without having to break their mental model of the application behavior each upgrade with all the UI scramble and revamping. I'm starting to get a dose of that myself with so…

Rather than keeping old systems around (though we do that too, still having 486 systems running), we keep diskless version of old OS versions around, complete with installed applications (IDEs, compilers etc). Anything from WinXP to Win10 works fine over iSCSI (presumably 11 does too), DOS using etherboot and MSNET, and diskless linux has never been a challenge.

Re: Tell HN: I used the same computer since 2007 (with minor upgrades)

#147

Post by john61 » Tue, Jun 07, 2022, 5:25 AM UTC

My working horse is a X230 from 2011 and I changed keyboard, upgraded RAM und changed HDD/SDD 2 times and upgraded Debian. I plan to install coreboot, erase the Intel ME and replace the fan in summer. My Phone is a Nokia N900 from 2009. I changed the battery about 4 times, otherwise the Hardware is fine. But the Software is getting dated, since unfortunatly not all of it is free software.

Both still perform very well for my workload. Financially I could easly replace those things multiple times but I enjoy to repair things, learn a lot by doing so, and the good feeling that I am not responsible for a lot of e-waste und resource profligacy that threatens our species.

Re: Tell HN: I used the same computer since 2007 (with minor upgrades)

#148

Post by acchow » Tue, Jun 07, 2022, 5:43 AM UTC

> When was the last time you gave something extra life instead of throwing it away?

Every time I sell my old computer.

Re: Tell HN: I used the same computer since 2007 (with minor upgrades)

#149

Post by system2 » Tue, Jun 07, 2022, 5:44 AM UTC

If that computer takes more time to finish a job and you need more time, this means it is costing you money to use it. Just my two cents.

Re: Tell HN: I used the same computer since 2007 (with minor upgrades)

#150

Post by timattrn » Tue, Jun 07, 2022, 5:45 AM UTC

You don't have to throw it away. You can give it away. Your gift displaces for some time the purchase of a new item. This still proves the point that you should aim to buy products where the consumable components are repairable and where the non-repairable components are durable.