I used a 12" Apple PowerBook G4 for years, long after Apple switched to Intel and came out with Macbook Air and Macbook Pro lines. I loved that laptop. Long after Apple stopped providing updates to the OS or browser I used TenFourFox to run a reasonably up-to-date FireFox on it. I finally gave it up, the battery life had degraded a lot and while that could have been replaced I was growing increasingly nervous about using such an out-of-date OS on an internet-connected laptop. I still miss it.
I stopped buying new laptops (2020)
71–80 of 551 posts
Re: I stopped buying new laptops (2020)
#72“Laptops don’t change” Really? because a few years ago battery life was maybe 7 hours and now it’s 18. And with faster processors, thunderbolt 4 and USB C charging, wifi 6, better screens and lighter. I keep hearing this argument for not buying a new laptop every year and it just doesn’t hold water. I say buy the latest MacBook, expense it, factor it in as a monthly cost. These are expendable and essential tools. The…
You sound like you've fallen for some marketing. They want you to think that your laptop is "old" and you must upgrade. They want you to chase specs regardless of the benefit to your workflow because specs will improve forever.
I don't upgrade unless my computer can't do a thing that I need it to do.
Re: I stopped buying new laptops (2020)
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
My M1 Mac is the best laptop I ever owned. But it is also a big step up, I expect my machine to stay viable quite some time and recommend my noob friends to buy used M1/M2 Macbooks (if available).
Is it also (inflation / time adjusted) the most expensive ?
Base m1 macbook air sells for 800 bucks routinely. It's a great value in my opinion. I agree it's the best machine I have ever owned.
Re: I stopped buying new laptops (2020)
#74I'd like to defend the T430 from a T430. Yes, it was a bad purchase when I made it (and when the author made it), but you can buy them for $100 a piece now on Ebay. Keyboards you can probably buy 20 for $50. Since they are from the dawn of Thinkpad's bullshit, they hardcoded the hardware choices you could make for upgrades into the firmware. Awful. But 1vyrain ( https://1vyra.in/ ) came along and fixed all that. A T4…
The 35 watt processor in the T430 is just way too easy to get toasty. The T440 or above with a 1080p screen upgrade and trackpad replacement is so much nicer to use since it cooks your legs less, has a nicer screen, is lighter, thinner and still able to take hard falls without issue.
> The 35 watt processor in the T430 is just way too easy to get toasty.
Definitely true, but I don't use laptops on my lap very often. I also have a fear that
> lighter, thinner
may mean harder to get into and repair/replace things.
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edit: let me let these people argue in favor of the T430...
https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/r88wag/my_almost_...
Re: I stopped buying new laptops (2020)
#75“Laptops don’t change” Really? because a few years ago battery life was maybe 7 hours and now it’s 18. And with faster processors, thunderbolt 4 and USB C charging, wifi 6, better screens and lighter. I keep hearing this argument for not buying a new laptop every year and it just doesn’t hold water. I say buy the latest MacBook, expense it, factor it in as a monthly cost. These are expendable and essential tools. The…
Do you actually buy a new laptop every year? I feel that's a bit delusional. Year to year most upgrades are pretty minor. An argument can be made maybe every 3 years if you're doing some incredibly resource intense stuff.
I do a lot of Android and iOS app compilation (Lots of flavors/schemes of apps). So lately the upgrades in cores has meant a faster upgrade cycle for my work dev machine than for the intel based MacBook Pro era. I’m sure Apple can’t keep up this pace of the last few years though.
Back in early 2000s we used distcc for distributed compilation of QT apps and reused old workstations in a server room. But with XCode and Android studio it isn’t pragmatic.
Re: I stopped buying new laptops (2020)
#76“Laptops don’t change” Really? because a few years ago battery life was maybe 7 hours and now it’s 18. And with faster processors, thunderbolt 4 and USB C charging, wifi 6, better screens and lighter. I keep hearing this argument for not buying a new laptop every year and it just doesn’t hold water. I say buy the latest MacBook, expense it, factor it in as a monthly cost. These are expendable and essential tools. The…
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Re: I stopped buying new laptops (2020)
#77> According to the most recent life cycle analysis, it takes 3,010 to 4,340 megajoules of primary energy to make a laptop 4340 MJ is around 135 litres of gasoline in terms of primary energy, or a little less than 36 US gallons. Commuters blow through this much in 1-2 months, depending on distance. My point is that if you're concerned about embedded energy, there's a lot of other, lower hanging fruit to pick.
Energy usage isn’t the only thing to be concerned about. There are resources that have to be extracted, and non-recyclable waste piling up in huge quantities.
Seems like a fine fruit to pick if you consider broader environmental impact.
(Also, we can do multiple things at once. Burning an extra 36 gallons of oil if you don’t have to is still bad.)
Re: I stopped buying new laptops (2020)
#78I used to think that as long as all you needed to do was some web browsing that older or underspeced machines were fine.
But in the last few years websites have become insanely resource intensive.
Even using something as seemingly simple as Gmail is a frustrating experience on older laptops (speaking as someone who just upgraded from a 2017 dual core MacBook Pro).
I also have a hard time believing that the same hardware could handle that task much better if it used some lightweight linux distro. The browser engines are the same after all.
You could swap Gmail for a lightweight email client, but I find that this approach of choosing software compatible with a capabilities of these low powered machines runs into some limitations sooner or later, e.g. when someone decides to sends you a Microsoft Office file, asks you to collaborate on a Google doc, insists on doing a meeting via Google Meet or Zoom.
I may also want some of the other amenities modern laptops have to offer, like bright screens, long lasting batteries, the possibility of using a modern IDE or IDE like editor instead of having to learn VIM.
Re: I stopped buying new laptops (2020)
#79[deleted]
Re: I stopped buying new laptops (2020)
#80I often buy a ~one generation old phone for this same reason. It's just so much better value to buy someone else's phone. The folks who keep buying the newest generation tech often seem to take really good care of their gear - perhaps because they plan to resell it later. I haven't done this as much with laptops because I do tend to keep those for such a long time that I can reasonably amortize a bigger investment ov…
But the biggest reason (for me) to replace phone is to get security updates; buying used is counter-productive to that end
Because the time to get updates is less on an older phone or that a used phone is less secure because someone could install malware on it?