3 ms·
Why, though? Lifetimes are dictated by the physical processes that govern wear, and computers wear out fast: we pump a whole lot of electrons through them, and
by TheRealPomax 10y ago
Why, though? Lifetimes are dictated by the physical processes that govern wear, and computers wear out fast: we pump a whole lot of electrons through them, and because we want them to be faster and faster have made them less and less fault tolerant under heavy load.
Make no mistake: ever since the AT/XT days the useful lifetime of a computer has been in the three year range because of the nature of matter and the physics we exploit to make digital circuits do what they need to do. Can you still use a 20 year old computer that runs Word Perfect 5 on MS-DOS 6.22 and isn't really made to do much more? Of course. And of course, you'll still be able to run OSX Panther on a 2005 MacMini for years to come, but you can't use those things for anything new or modern, you've created a little time machine that can only do what we wanted to do in 1985, or 1995, or 2005, instead of in 2015 (or soon enough, 2025).
Most of us want to use those new programs that rely on new algorithms that require the faster hardware, or old algorithms that massively benefit from faster hardware - we want spreadsheets to take less than seconds, not more than minutes, for ever-more complex work; we want games that run smoothly, not "not at all" or at 1 or 2 frames per second; we want our internet browser to start when we tell it to, not after a period of time that is long enough to wonder whether it even started at all.
Things all have lifetimes, and for computers that lifetime's about 3 years, and has been for decades. On the upside, computers are ships of Theseus: most of the time, we can just swap out broken parts for new parts, including faster parts, so really the lifetime of a single, unadulterated, intact computer is three years, but with a few hundred bucks every three years, we can keep pulling it back into the modern age until at some point nothing of the original remains - and the lifetime of THAT computer is much, much longer.
- raverbashing 10y agoThere's no 3 year limit. I usually get 5 years from my notebooks (batteries are an issue, of course)
- nextos 10y agoWhy 3 years? My MacBook Air 2012 runs Linux better than some brand new machines. As a browser and a ssh machine it's good enough. My dad ran Ubuntu for a decade on my 13 year old workstation. He couldn't do anything I could do on my laptop. A Pentium IV with HT was good enough for his LaTeX and his MCMC simulations.
- Nullabillity 10y ago> Why 3 years? My MacBook Air 2012 runs Linux better than some brand new machines. Not if you compensate for how much extra you paid for it. > As a browser and a ssh machine it's good enough. So you're just offloading the needed upgrades to someone else, while still ALSO needing to maintain your own computer (though to a lesser degree). Unless you need the extra battery capacity (how often do you need to work for several hours without being close to a plug?) then it's much simpler to just run everything locally. Plus you don't need an internet connection! Plus using an IDE or anything else graphical will actually be a bearable experience!
- rbanffy 10y ago> Not if you compensate for how much extra you paid for it. It's not how much you pay for your computer, but how much you spend per year, on average, that counts. If a computer does its job for twice as long as the other, it's reasonable to pay up to twice as much for it.
- JadeNB 10y ago> He couldn't do anything I could do on my laptop. Surely you mean "He could do everything I could do on my laptop"?
- tedunangst 10y ago> we want our internet browser to start when we tell it to, not after a period of time that is long enough to wonder whether it even started at all. I wonder if there's a way to solve this problem that doesn't involve buying a new computer every three years.
- meows 10y ago3 years sounds too aggressive of an estimate. I would experientially expect a Macbook Pro to last 5 years. Prior to SSD's, the HDD was the most common reason for laptop failure, but nowadays Macbook Pros come with SSD options, so now I would expect a substantial portion of the most recent Macbook Pro populations to hit the 5 year mark. In terms of software requirements, I think most people don't play heavy requirement games, and for basic personal and office tasks, the 2/4 threaded CPU's of the past few years have been up to the task of browsing, office suites (with responsive spreadsheets), and media.
- justinlardinois 10y agoEven five years seems too little. I had an old Gateway laptop that lasted for about ten years, and the only replacement I ever had to do with it was buying new chargers along the way because they kept getting worn out.