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

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

#81

Post by Wowfunhappy »

birdfood wrote: post #77

My personal machine is the first and only new computer I ever bought: a 2012 Mac book air. I wanted to get a pro but couldn't justify the price. I took it in to get the battery replaced a couple of years ago instead of upgrading, again, I couldn't justify the price. I think I'll probably get the battery replaced again soon as it's started to falter. For the stuff I do in my spare time this machine is totally adequate…

> I also have the original iPhone SE as my phone which I will probably get refurbished soon instead of getting a new one - all the new phones are too big.

Have you looked at the iPhone Mini? It is a bit bigger than the original SE but not by much!

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

#82

Post by daniel-cussen »

owyn wrote: post #39
uberduper wrote: post #24

My 2006 Mac Pro is still perfectly usable, regardless of what Apple claims. It's just loud. :(

Ha yes, 2008 Mac Pro here. Would be perfectly usable if it wasn't deprecated.

That violates the right of first sale, if they don't want to keep upgrading the OS they gotta let the users fork it.

So right of first sale means if I buy an eg book, I have the right to sell it used. If I buy a computer, I have the right to sell it used. So it should not become a brick right when I'm selling it.

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

#83

Post by u801e »

greenyoda wrote: post #60
usrn wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did the Alpine mail reader stop working with Gmail? I switched to self hosting after Google kicked me out of my account with a broken password reset so I haven't had to switch to a different mail reader.

Gmail supports IMAP (and even POP), so you can use just about any e-mail client with it: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7126229?hl=en

I believe Gmail requires (or soon will require) authenticating with OAuth2 in order to use IMAP and SMTP. Thunderbird supports it, but I'm not sure about other email clients.

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

#84

Post by hedora »

My desktop is mostly from 2011. The GPU is only about 4 years old, but the case and many of the fans are at least 15. The newest drives are new SSDs. I ripped my whole CD collection with the current optical drive (DVD?) and a now-defunct one in 2001 or so (different case). The build started out as an Athlon XP, and then was a 64 bit AMD for a while.

These days, it's fine for 4K linux gaming. CPU performance really stalled out over the years. The original motherboard, ram, cpu, etc build was about $1000.

Many other computers and laptops have come and gone, but it's still my main home machine.

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

#85

Post by sgtnoodle »

kaetemi wrote: post #53
deathanatos wrote: post #49

That's a very nice lifetime for a build; you should be proud. Though I can't imagine using a 5400 RPM HDD today. 7200 RPM or bust, I'm spoiled… > When was the last time you gave something extra life instead of throwing it away? Ugh, unfortunately I'm at "throw it away", basically. My current build, built in 2011, won't stay powered up. It gets anywhere from a few seconds to a few hours (and sometimes days) and then i…

I had random freezes and power cycles until... redoing the electric wiring in the house! My guess is the washing machine, which was down the same line as my office (in addition to our main supply line being extremely undersized), was causing some spikes on the supply voltage.

That's a good find!

I know someone who worked on mainframes with wire wrapped backplanes back in the day. He was the customer support technician sent out when all others failed. One time, he discovered that a customer's reliability problems correlated to folk riding the elevator before and after lunch.

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

#86

Post by Wowfunhappy »

jquery wrote: post #57
harha wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first iPad, I believe it was the third generation: I would have never used it if it were as slow as it has become today. It also lost some synchronization options, though I don’t recall what it was. That being said: I kept my 2013 MacBook Pro retina until a few months ago, one year after a battery replacement which ended up breaking other parts and becoming to expensive to fix. Otherwise it ran perfectly fine and…

I’m still using my 2013 MPro Retina as a nice backup computer (when I need to do MacOS things), I refuse to sell it. It had the last good keyboard before the butterfly came along.

> It had the last good keyboard before the butterfly came along.

Wasn't the last of those the 2015 Macbook Pro?

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

#88

Post by jacknews »

hkt wrote: post #28

I tried to do this with every laptop I've bought: something that will last and be repairable. Three Dell XPS 13s later I'm buying a Starbook. I hope it'll be the last for a long, long time. Desktops I've had more luck with - my last one that died did so in November last year. I've replaced it with a Udoo Bolt and I'm hoping to hang on to that for a decade, too.

Thinkpad T430 for me.

Bought a couple for the kids used, in 2015, and they're still going strong, albeit both have had screens, keyboards and fans replaced. But that's the beauty - the replacements are cheap enough to be worthwhile, and you can perform the replacement yourself with basic tools.

It's a shame laptops don't have more standardized modular interfaces, like desktops, so that replacements would be commoditized, and you could mix and match parts.

Meanwhile I'm on my third macbook in the same period (needed for work), due to software support, gpu failure, keyboard failure, etc, all too expensive to bother fixing, and my latest takes 3-4 times as long to start up as the T430s running xubuntu...

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

#89

Post by [deleted] »

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #34

So I absolutely agree and applaud your effort and think that we should all generally endeavor to use our hardware until it breaks or is completely impossible to work with anymore. However. If you replaced the motherboard, the CPU, the graphics card, and the hard drive, how exactly are you calling this the same computer? Forget "minor upgrades", that's a proper Ship of Theseus - I guess you've got the same case and...…

[deleted]

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

#90

Post by _Microft »

wiennat wrote: post #31

Cool story and congratulations on your work. ------- I gave my 2010 macbook pro to my parents when I got a new one in 2015. They still use it to surf the internet and sometimes for netflix before bedtime. Its battery is so swollen that the lid cannot close anymore. I also bought apple care but never had any chance to use it. Very impressive for a computer without any hardware failure for 12 years.

The battery is a massive fire hazard. Show them videos of battery fires if they don’t see the point in replacing the battery.
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