5 ms·

> Chromebooks reach "end of life" after a few years 6.5 years is not what would usually be described as "a few years."

by kllrnohj 8y ago

et2o 8y ago
Agree; this was a blatant and knowing mischaracterization by OP.
- cure 8y ago
  It is still planned obselescence, even at 6.5 years. I still use a lenovo t420 that is almost 8 years old. I bought it with the fastest processor available back then, and it is still plenty useful as a Debian desktop.
  - neilv 8y ago
    That's a perfectly fine Linux workstation for most non-GPU purposes. I use a slightly older model ThinkPad, in which I upgrade the CPU, RAM, and keyboard. (It does mean running my own GPU server, over the network, for Tensorflow, etc., which is an inconvenience compared to onboard. But "cloud" is en vogue anyway.)
  - givinguflac 8y ago
    Lenovo didn’t even officially support t420 windows 10 drivers. You didn’t even get half that 6.5 years before the mfr considered it obsolete.
    - currysausage 8y ago
      First, Windows 8(.1) is supported until 2023. Second, Windows 8 drivers will usually work smoothly under Windows 10, and I see plenty Windows 8 drivers for the T420 in Driver Matrix. There's even a BIOS update from 2018-06-25. My T430 (one generation later) received a BIOS update in February and I expect more to come.
      - givinguflac 7y ago
        If using outdated drivers on unsupported hardware is your idea of full vendor support then enjoy. Your mention of a newer model doesn’t change anything about the op.
- xg15 8y ago
  Why?
Shish2k 8y ago
Are you suggesting that the number should be higher or lower? As someone who still has functional PC hardware from the 90's, calling 6.5 "a few years" sounds about right...
- warent 8y ago
  Functioning how?
  - djsumdog 8y ago
    People still run Commodore 64s. There are demo scenes, old hardware enthusiasts that squeeze crazy performance out of old hardware, even a guy who use a Raspberry Pi to emulate an NES cartridge and get his unmodified NES to play SNES games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar9WRwCiSr0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar9WRwCiSr0 Old hardware can often be repaired. If you told a C64 user back in the day his machine would break in two years, he or she wouldn't shell out the $$ on it, but today people buy $400~$800 cellphones that turn into garbage.
    - Octoth0rpe 8y ago
      > If you told a C64 user back in the day his machine would break in two years, he or she wouldn't shell out the $$ on it, but today people buy $400~$800 cellphones that turn into garbage. I wouldn't put money on that. A C64's starting price was $600 in 1982 dollars. For $154 in 1982, quite a few people might have been willing.
    - Zancarius 8y ago
      Exactly. Unsurprisingly, there's even a few hacks out there for upgrading old C64s with newer/better components, too, if you want to get another couple decades out of it. There's even new manufacture C64-compatible enthusiast boards being produced [1], although I believe you may have to supply your own SID chip. The latter doesn't count much for this topic, but it illustrates there's some interest. Further, the parts that are likely to break over time are fairly trivial for someone with soldering skills to replace. I know of at least a couple people who preemptively replaced capacitors on old C64s they bought and refurbished. [1] https://icomp.de/shop-icomp/en/produkt-details/product/c64-reloaded-mk2.html https://icomp.de/shop-icomp/en/produkt-details/product/c64-r...
p1mrx 8y ago
6.5 years is the lifetime of the platform. An individual device for sale could fall anywhere on that timeline.
rhinoceraptor 8y ago
A lot of 7 year old computers are still totally usable, PCs aren't advancing like they used to. My 2012 retina Macbook Pro is a little bit slow in some cases, but it's still a great machine for normal tasks.
- a-afterglow 8y ago
  Yeah, I actually bought a 2011 MBP like 2 years ago for 200 bucks. Use it as my main driver for my home music studio. Big projects load a bit slow but aside from that everything works fine. Only thing I don't like is that there isn't really a cheap and decent way to have 2 external monitors on it AFAIK. Which is why I built a low budget Ryzen 2200g build which is perfect for audio and coding and now share my work between the two.
- Tsubasachan 8y ago
  Yep, threw win10 enterprise ltsc on a 7 year old laptop. Use it as a media player sitting under the TV.
wazoox 8y ago
My newest computer (the XPS I'm typing this on) is 7 years old. My desktop computer is about 11 years old (upgraded to quad core Phenom, 16GB) and is more than enough for anything I'll need for many years to come (maybe provided an upgrade of the GPU).

> Chromebooks reach "end of life" after a few years 6.5 years is not what would usually be described as "a few years."

et2o 8y ago

Agree; this was a blatant and knowing mischaracterization by OP.

cure 8y ago
It is still planned obselescence, even at 6.5 years. I still use a lenovo t420 that is almost 8 years old. I bought it with the fastest processor available back then, and it is still plenty useful as a Debian desktop.
- neilv 8y ago
  That's a perfectly fine Linux workstation for most non-GPU purposes. I use a slightly older model ThinkPad, in which I upgrade the CPU, RAM, and keyboard. (It does mean running my own GPU server, over the network, for Tensorflow, etc., which is an inconvenience compared to onboard. But "cloud" is en vogue anyway.)
- givinguflac 8y ago
  Lenovo didn’t even officially support t420 windows 10 drivers. You didn’t even get half that 6.5 years before the mfr considered it obsolete.
  - currysausage 8y ago
    First, Windows 8(.1) is supported until 2023. Second, Windows 8 drivers will usually work smoothly under Windows 10, and I see plenty Windows 8 drivers for the T420 in Driver Matrix. There's even a BIOS update from 2018-06-25. My T430 (one generation later) received a BIOS update in February and I expect more to come.
    - givinguflac 7y ago
      If using outdated drivers on unsupported hardware is your idea of full vendor support then enjoy. Your mention of a newer model doesn’t change anything about the op.
xg15 8y ago
Why?

Shish2k 8y ago

Are you suggesting that the number should be higher or lower? As someone who still has functional PC hardware from the 90's, calling 6.5 "a few years" sounds about right...

warent 8y ago
Functioning how?
- djsumdog 8y ago
  People still run Commodore 64s. There are demo scenes, old hardware enthusiasts that squeeze crazy performance out of old hardware, even a guy who use a Raspberry Pi to emulate an NES cartridge and get his unmodified NES to play SNES games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar9WRwCiSr0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar9WRwCiSr0 Old hardware can often be repaired. If you told a C64 user back in the day his machine would break in two years, he or she wouldn't shell out the $$ on it, but today people buy $400~$800 cellphones that turn into garbage.
  - Octoth0rpe 8y ago
    > If you told a C64 user back in the day his machine would break in two years, he or she wouldn't shell out the $$ on it, but today people buy $400~$800 cellphones that turn into garbage. I wouldn't put money on that. A C64's starting price was $600 in 1982 dollars. For $154 in 1982, quite a few people might have been willing.
  - Zancarius 8y ago
    Exactly. Unsurprisingly, there's even a few hacks out there for upgrading old C64s with newer/better components, too, if you want to get another couple decades out of it. There's even new manufacture C64-compatible enthusiast boards being produced [1], although I believe you may have to supply your own SID chip. The latter doesn't count much for this topic, but it illustrates there's some interest. Further, the parts that are likely to break over time are fairly trivial for someone with soldering skills to replace. I know of at least a couple people who preemptively replaced capacitors on old C64s they bought and refurbished. [1] https://icomp.de/shop-icomp/en/produkt-details/product/c64-reloaded-mk2.html https://icomp.de/shop-icomp/en/produkt-details/product/c64-r...

p1mrx 8y ago

6.5 years is the lifetime of the platform. An individual device for sale could fall anywhere on that timeline.

rhinoceraptor 8y ago

A lot of 7 year old computers are still totally usable, PCs aren't advancing like they used to. My 2012 retina Macbook Pro is a little bit slow in some cases, but it's still a great machine for normal tasks.

a-afterglow 8y ago
Yeah, I actually bought a 2011 MBP like 2 years ago for 200 bucks. Use it as my main driver for my home music studio. Big projects load a bit slow but aside from that everything works fine. Only thing I don't like is that there isn't really a cheap and decent way to have 2 external monitors on it AFAIK. Which is why I built a low budget Ryzen 2200g build which is perfect for audio and coding and now share my work between the two.
Tsubasachan 8y ago
Yep, threw win10 enterprise ltsc on a 7 year old laptop. Use it as a media player sitting under the TV.

wazoox 8y ago

My newest computer (the XPS I'm typing this on) is 7 years old. My desktop computer is about 11 years old (upgraded to quad core Phenom, 16GB) and is more than enough for anything I'll need for many years to come (maybe provided an upgrade of the GPU).