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I just wish that smartphones had a more standardised OS. Old laptops are fully usable in exactly the same way as a modern machine. They might be slightly slowe

I just wish that smartphones had a more standardised OS. Old laptops are fully usable in exactly the same way as a modern machine. They might be slightly slower. Well, I mean, it's getting more difficult to deal with 32bit hardware, but that's about 10-15 years old now. My 32bit atom netbook is still usable; still gets security patches; runs the latest everything (it's just very slow, and e.g. some distros dropped 32bit support). I think that the phone manufacturers, Google, etc, should address the fact that they are creating mountains of e-waste for no good reason. The last new phone I bought was partly because old software stopped running on my version of Android. That's really a shame. I'm keeping an eye on the progress of the Librem but that's a tiny niche market for nerds like me and doesn't address the wider problem.

leetcrew 7y ago
> I think that the phone manufacturers, Google, etc, should address the fact that they are creating mountains of e-waste for no good reason. The last new phone I bought was partly because old software stopped running on my version of Android. That's really a shame. this might be naive, but I do suspect we are getting close to an inflection point with the two year phone lifetime. up until the last few years, phone hardware was advancing rapidly and major features were being added to the mobile OSes every year. no one who could afford to wanted to keep a phone more than two or three years. now that mobile tech is more mature, they will start having to cater to people who want to buy a quality device and keep it for longer. arguably apple is already doing this; iOS 13 will still support a phone from 2015.
- esotericn 7y ago
  I'm not so sure. We need an "IBM PC" of the smartphone world. It's not a matter of the hardware manufacturers "supporting an OS". It's about the lack of standardization, hardware drivers, fragmentation etc. Samsung don't support my 15 year old laptop, but it works and works fine, because it's a PC. If the kernel drivers for my phone were mainlined that would be a huge step.
  - ianai 7y ago
    We need a tech recycling law and oversight. Many valuable materials are put into phones never to be seen again nor properly disposed. Standardized components would help. There will never be market pressure to recycle nor standardize without a mandate.
signa11 7y ago
> I just wish that smartphones had a more standardised OS. going back in time, we have ibm (yes !) to thank for that :o) i don't know, if it would be possible for current duopoly to replaced anytime soon...
neilv 7y ago
Sometimes, you're not stuck at 32-bit. When I was using my stockpile of ThinkPad T60 units, luckily, I was able to upgrade the CPUs to 64-bit easily. (Reportedly, most T60 motherboards supported 64-bit, even though most shipped with 32-bit, and the CPUs are socketed, and can be swapped without much laptop disassembly.) I ended up upgrading from T60 to somewhat newer, less-well-designed other ThinkPad series, mainly for a larger display, so that I wasn't tied to my desk as much. And I still transplant original T60 keyboards into the somewhat newer models, since, after the T60, Lenovo started making the keyboard flex.

leetcrew 7y ago

> I think that the phone manufacturers, Google, etc, should address the fact that they are creating mountains of e-waste for no good reason. The last new phone I bought was partly because old software stopped running on my version of Android. That's really a shame. this might be naive, but I do suspect we are getting close to an inflection point with the two year phone lifetime. up until the last few years, phone hardware was advancing rapidly and major features were being added to the mobile OSes every year. no one who could afford to wanted to keep a phone more than two or three years. now that mobile tech is more mature, they will start having to cater to people who want to buy a quality device and keep it for longer. arguably apple is already doing this; iOS 13 will still support a phone from 2015.

esotericn 7y ago
I'm not so sure. We need an "IBM PC" of the smartphone world. It's not a matter of the hardware manufacturers "supporting an OS". It's about the lack of standardization, hardware drivers, fragmentation etc. Samsung don't support my 15 year old laptop, but it works and works fine, because it's a PC. If the kernel drivers for my phone were mainlined that would be a huge step.
- ianai 7y ago
  We need a tech recycling law and oversight. Many valuable materials are put into phones never to be seen again nor properly disposed. Standardized components would help. There will never be market pressure to recycle nor standardize without a mandate.

signa11 7y ago

> I just wish that smartphones had a more standardised OS. going back in time, we have ibm (yes !) to thank for that :o) i don't know, if it would be possible for current duopoly to replaced anytime soon...

neilv 7y ago

Sometimes, you're not stuck at 32-bit. When I was using my stockpile of ThinkPad T60 units, luckily, I was able to upgrade the CPUs to 64-bit easily. (Reportedly, most T60 motherboards supported 64-bit, even though most shipped with 32-bit, and the CPUs are socketed, and can be swapped without much laptop disassembly.) I ended up upgrading from T60 to somewhat newer, less-well-designed other ThinkPad series, mainly for a larger display, so that I wasn't tied to my desk as much. And I still transplant original T60 keyboards into the somewhat newer models, since, after the T60, Lenovo started making the keyboard flex.