Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How and why I stopped buying new laptops

solar.lowtechmagazine.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 288 posts

Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#101

Post by jseliger »

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 author is also a journalist, which means he probably works primarily with words. For video editing and even some image editing, modern machines do make a difference.

Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#102

Post by bryanmgreen »

I'd enjoy some numbers on the environmental damage of laptop versus desktop consumption.

My desktop is 6 years old with an i7 CPU (high-end) and 750Ti GPU (entry level). My monitor is a 24" 1080 Samsung bought new in 2009 for ~$120 at Frys if I recall. All in all, this package cost me $1,300 (there was a sale on the i7 at purchase).

I use it heavily for photography, occasional video and audio, and I'm currently playing Fallen Order (released Nov. 2019) with Medium+ settings (Texture is high) loading from a SSD bought in 2016. There is admittedly some weakness in the gaming department, but otherwise, zero issues. But I do think I'll buy a used 1660/2070 GPU and monitor in a few months to upgrade.

I have an iPad Mini 4 I use when traveling and going to coffee shops and that pretty much always fits my mobility needs.

Too many people are buying $1.5k+ plus laptops that they don't maximize usage of, then chuck away in 3 years because they either die due to the compromising form factor or because they want an unnecessary upgrade to browse the internet.

Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#103

Post by bullen »

My last laptop is also a ThinkPad but X61s (the last one that had the IBM logo)... I'm not using it that much because I don't move around but I replaced the drive with a 30GB SSD like ten years ago and installed linux. Also had to replace the heatpipe + fan (because of more and more noise) but still works great!

I would actually recommend people use a Raspberry 4 now a days, and just bring the pi or have one at each location if you don't need security... and have screens/keyboard/mouse at all places (remember to use the same keyboard everywhere). Working on trains is not really constuctive as you cannot do deep work there anyhow!

Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#104

Post by silverpepsi »

jamesrcole wrote: post #87
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 11" Macbook Air solved the laptop form factor. That's weirdly-specific. Some people would prefer a larger screen size, for example. > Could there be some refinements to my 2015 MBA ? I upgraded from a 2015 (I think) MBA to a 2018 model (both 13" ones), and two actual improvements that I like are: larger trackpad size, and smaller overall dimensions (so there's a smaller bezel around the screen, for example).

trackpad was nice until I realized the trade-off was worse than the gain, it took a few days to notice the undeniable excess of unintended clicks and moves

sure enough, it had been right the first time and now is a mistake imho

Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#105

Post by Stoic0 »

I’m in the same boat. I own used x230 and a used T460 both souped up with more memory and SSDs. I just picked up a used T480 with an i7 and 2560 display. Will soup it up with more RAM and another SSD and should be good to go for a few years at least.

Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#106

Post by dTal »

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?

That's a very interesting observation. I wonder if there's a word for it...

Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#107

Post by Anthony-G »

I have a similar attitude to the author. I bought one new laptop in my lifetime but realised that second-hand or refurbished offer better value for money. For the past eight years, I’ve been using a Core 2 Duo Dell Vostro from 2007. I’m conscious of the environmental cost to manufacturing brand new devices so I only ever buy second-hand mobile phones and I apply the same philosophy to other consumer goods – cars (20 years old), stereo equipment (25 years old), bicycle (15 years old), etc. I sometimes buy clothes from charity shops but the shops have so little range in male clothes that it takes too much time to find something I like in a size that fits.

My laptop is 13 years old and I’ve upgraded its RAM to the maximum (4GB) and replaced the hard drive with a SSD. It runs Ubuntu 18.04 with LXDE as a lightweight desktop environment. I could probably use a more minimal window manager but for my usage, it’s the web browser that tends to eat RAM – due to modern websites’ predilection for externalising a ridiculously huge amount of unnecessary computation on to the end user. I see the article writer mentions that they use Vivaldi and Midori. I tried Midori for a couple of months around 2015 but ended up coming back to Firefox.

What makes Firefox usable is that I disable a lot of (most) JavaScript with the uMatrix browser extension (I used to use NoScript before Quantum). Since I’m not very disciplined, I can have a couple of hundred tabs open at a time; what makes this feasible is the Auto Tab Discard extension which stops open (but unused) browser tabs from using RAM and CPU.

Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#108

Post by jakub_g »

mancerayder wrote: post #64
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…

> (e.g., mid-priced models with only 8 GB RAM soldered, no ability to upgrade). Aw, man, that's been a sticking point for years, that magic 8G. I don't know how they do it, but 8G of RAM has been the ever-soldered / or mid-range / you-need-to-pay-more-for-the-next-model-up thing for at least 5-6 years now. Even a web browser can eat up that 8G if it's hungry enough.

Until ~2015 4GB were the only reasonably priced option for crazy long as well. I've been waiting ~3 years looking for a new laptop, as replacing an old 3GB one with new 4GB one was hardly an upgrade.

Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops

#110

Post by amelius »

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 read somewhere (on HN?) that Italians speak faster than Germans because their words contain less information, so in the end they still communicate the same amount of information per minute. Italians and Germans were used in the example because they were the two extremes.
Post reply on HN