3 ms·

I’ve owned a laptop since I was remarkably young mostly for typing documents on initially. Yes older laptops can do an okay job, but they’re heavy, bulky, have

I’ve owned a laptop since I was remarkably young mostly for typing documents on initially. Yes older laptops can do an okay job, but they’re heavy, bulky, have low battery life, and dim low-ppi screens. Something like a 1080p Chromebook even with Linux installed is not that expensive and a nice experience. I’ve seen some people who will retrofit the old shells with modern components, I can see the appeal in these, but honestly these old computers really aren’t that good at just typing. There’s something to be said about the waste of the extra cells of batteries you will burn though lol. I appreciate the environmental concern but I want to be real bout this aspect, because I HAD to use these computers for the purposes the author talks about. I have two of these old thinkpads that people rave about, both have fallen into disrepair and I keep one body around because I’m sure some modder will eventually be interested. Old computers also have LOTS of issues with things like video playback.

jonwest 4y ago
I feel like video playback is something that very rarely pops up in these discussions. Yes your old laptop boots up and runs Linux and you can write emails and browse a forum, but video streaming is pretty much off the table at anything above 480p since these older laptops aren’t likely to support modern codecs. They’re pretty useless to me on a daily driver perspective as things like Google Meet or Zoom similarly grenade the CPU and deliver a subpar experience in that regard. I wish the lifespan of these machines were longer or had some form of an upgrade path like the Framework, as they’re contributing a pile to e-waste, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. I do keep a couple of old notebooks around for nostalgic purposes and occasional vintage gaming, but I wouldn’t want to use one as my daily driver.

jonwest 4y ago

I feel like video playback is something that very rarely pops up in these discussions. Yes your old laptop boots up and runs Linux and you can write emails and browse a forum, but video streaming is pretty much off the table at anything above 480p since these older laptops aren’t likely to support modern codecs. They’re pretty useless to me on a daily driver perspective as things like Google Meet or Zoom similarly grenade the CPU and deliver a subpar experience in that regard. I wish the lifespan of these machines were longer or had some form of an upgrade path like the Framework, as they’re contributing a pile to e-waste, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. I do keep a couple of old notebooks around for nostalgic purposes and occasional vintage gaming, but I wouldn’t want to use one as my daily driver.