2012 Samsung Series 9 here, going strong with Debian Stable! I might end up ditching it for something with an OLED screen, but I am sure it will still be running fine.
The laptop that won't die
21–30 of 344 posts
Re: The laptop that won't die
#22I just had my T420 die on me the other day. It simply will not power on. I do have some spare parts but I think I'll finally cave in and buy a new laptop.
Re: The laptop that won't die
#23Author kinda summed up the problem a few paragraphs in.
> I needed a machine that a) could run Logic Pro (the finest music-editing software available to humanity),
So saying
> If you want a modern, sexy, lightweight, high-powered laptop? Go get something pricey from Apple or Microsoft.
should rather be
> If you need to get modern work done, you will likely need to obtain a modern, high-powered laptop that the modern tools were designed for, and this will likely be something pricey, but not optimized for long service life from Apple or Microsoft.
Re: The laptop that won't die
#2412 years is nothing! Thinkpads can easily last 2 decades.
12 years is 60% of 2 decades, so not quite 'nothing'.
Re: The laptop that won't die
#25Yup. The T420 itself is quite big and clunky these days; but I have a couple of T420s ('s' tends to be the slightly smaller version of any given generation of the mainstream T series) in active use around home, and have setup and given a few to friends and family as well They run Windows 10 perfectly fine once you put an SSD in, and they're small enough not to feel like 80's retro-futuristic Cyberpunk deck clunkers :…
I'm posting from my X220 (circa 2013). It's a laptop of Theseus at this point, but bits of the original still survive. (The keyboard is the single most-replaced component, and I'm on my third motherboard.) I can't stand more modern laptops - I've yet to find a newer laptop keyboard that's comfortable to type on. Performance-wise, it's perfectly adequate to run Linux Mint or Windows 10. And I get a kick out of having an SSD, an MSata, and a M2 drive in the ExpressCard slot (plus the SD card, which I use for additional backup). And at 12"x9" its a very convenient carry size. (Only better carry laptop I've had was a Fujitsu P1120.)
And yeah,
Re: The laptop that won't die
#26Author kinda summed up the problem a few paragraphs in. > I needed a machine that a) could run Logic Pro (the finest music-editing software available to humanity), So saying > If you want a modern, sexy, lightweight, high-powered laptop? Go get something pricey from Apple or Microsoft. should rather be > If you need to get modern work done, you will likely need to obtain a modern, high-powered laptop that the modern…
Apple is pretty good at long service life.
I recently had to upgrade the OS on my moms Air and it was a pain in the butt because she ignored updates for so long that all the SSL authority certs expired and the internet didn’t work. Plus Apple’s upgrade software was no longer supported by the servers – server wanted 2fa, moms laptop was too old to know what that is.
After a few manual hops, she is now smoothly running the latest and greatest MacOS on a 9+ year old laptop. Everything works fine.
Re: The laptop that won't die
#272012 Samsung Series 9 here, going strong with Debian Stable! I might end up ditching it for something with an OLED screen, but I am sure it will still be running fine.
My Samsung qx410 died miserably (motherboard gave up the ghost) after only 2 years. Bought in 2010, died in 2012. Replaced it with a hand-me-down thinkpad t510 which is still going strong after 11 years. (Not my primary machine anymore of course but it still works quite well)
Re: The laptop that won't die
#28Author kinda summed up the problem a few paragraphs in. > I needed a machine that a) could run Logic Pro (the finest music-editing software available to humanity), So saying > If you want a modern, sexy, lightweight, high-powered laptop? Go get something pricey from Apple or Microsoft. should rather be > If you need to get modern work done, you will likely need to obtain a modern, high-powered laptop that the modern…
Apple is pretty good at long service life. I recently had to upgrade the OS on my moms Air and it was a pain in the butt because she ignored updates for so long that all the SSL authority certs expired and the internet didn’t work. Plus Apple’s upgrade software was no longer supported by the servers – server wanted 2fa, moms laptop was too old to know what that is. After a few manual hops, she is now smoothly running…
I've had 3 Macs so far since work is on the Apple train. The first failed due to the discrete GPU desoldering itelf. The second didn't technically fail but the battery swelled up to the point the laptop was almost 1cm from closing at the edges. At least the latter problem is not so much an issue with a removable battery since it's, well, removable :-)
Re: The laptop that won't die
#29Author kinda summed up the problem a few paragraphs in. > I needed a machine that a) could run Logic Pro (the finest music-editing software available to humanity), So saying > If you want a modern, sexy, lightweight, high-powered laptop? Go get something pricey from Apple or Microsoft. should rather be > If you need to get modern work done, you will likely need to obtain a modern, high-powered laptop that the modern…
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Re: The laptop that won't die
#30I feel like this story is also relevant to the 2012 MacBook Pro and Air. My partner kept her air going for more than 10 years, and I saw people who for whatever reason (maybe keyboard or Touch Bar) hold on to those pros long past normal. So consider that another anecdote. Real data would be great here.
Still using MacBooks from that era - a big differentiator might be whether it has integrated graphics or is using a discrete GPU.
The discrete GPU ones (i.e MacBook pro) can eventually fail due to the video ram chips getting loose.