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> The processor available in 1986 was the i386, which was supported by Linux until 2012. i486 support is on its way out just now, more than 33 years later What

> The processor available in 1986 was the i386, which was supported by Linux until 2012. i486 support is on its way out just now, more than 33 years later What could you do with it in 2012? A 2010 Core2Duo 2.66Ghz Dell laptop can run Windows 10. Browse the modern web, mine had gigabit Ethernet, could run the latest version of Office decently and had a 500Gb hard drive. > It's not expected to do what modern phones can do. But it could still connect to WiFi, so why shouldn't it be usable for reading text or listening to music? Yes, as far as I know, the iTunes app still supports all iPods and iPhones. You can sync your music. And you can fill all of its massive 4GB or 8GB of storage. Even back in 2004 - 3 years before the iPhone. I had this https://www.lacie.com/support/multimedia/classic-hd/ https://www.lacie.com/support/multimedia/classic-hd/ It was a much better NAS than trying to repurpose an iPhone with very bad Wifi. You are going to “read text” on a 3.5 inch 320x480 Poot resolution screen in 2023? And you want Apple to continue supporting a “phone” that can’t be used as a phone anymore?

AnthonyMouse 4y ago
> What could you do with it in 2012? Now you're arguing against yourself. An original iPhone is much more capable than an i386. > Yes, as far as I know, the iTunes app still supports all iPods and iPhones. You can sync your music. And you can fill all of its massive 4GB or 8GB of storage. But as you point out, the storage is quite small. The hardware could perfectly well stream over WiFi, until you take away security updates and the ability to install the app. > It was a much better NAS than trying to repurpose an iPhone with very bad Wifi. A modern one would be better still, but I'm trying to use the thing I already have sitting in a drawer, not acquire something else. And sometimes the performance is irrelevant. If I'm just using it for automated backups I don't much care if it finishes in one minute or ten. > You are going to “read text” on a 3.5 inch 320x480 Poot resolution screen in 2023? Maybe I wouldn't, but some kid whose alternative is having no device at all, sure. > And you want Apple to continue supporting a “phone” that can’t be used as a phone anymore? It was never just a phone, but hotspot + WiFi calling and it still is a phone. To say nothing of Signal or similar. Your argument comes down to "newer things are better," but that isn't the same as older things are trash. Until you stop updating them and refuse to provide the documentation needed for anybody else to do it.
- scarface74 4y ago
  > Now you're arguing against yourself. An original iPhone I’m arguing that my 2010 Dell Core2Duo that had 8GB RAM, a 500GB hard drive, gigabit Ethernet and a 1920x1200 display has specs that in some ways are equivalent to a computer you could buy today and has hardware capable of running the latest browsers, the latest version of Office has enough RAM, has wired Ethernet that is still capable of completely taking advantage of my gigabit Ethernet and has wireless N. A 2007 iPhone has a crappy display, not enough memory or processing power to run a modern web browser and can’t actually function as a phone. My old first gen iPad crashes repeatedly on modern web pages. Of course I have newer devices. The earliest iPhone that has any decent hardware to handle the modern web is the iPhone 5s. Apple just a released a security update for it recently but What are children going go do with it if it can’t even use the modern web? They would be much better off getting one of the many $40 unsubsidized unlocked phones you can buy on Amazon. And from working with different educational institutions, I know for a fact that they think old computers are more trouble than they are worth and would much rather have a bunch of low cost ChromeBooks. If you want to help a child, give money to the organizations instead of junk computers. > It was never just a phone, but hotspot + WiFi calling and it still is a phone. To say nothing of Signal or similar The first gen iPhone couldn’t support hotspot functionality nor could it do wifi calling. Again, why try to keep an old half functioning phone when you could buy a much more capable $30 Android phone. Even in developing countries the average phone user has a much better phone than the original phone. The phone penetration rate even in the poorest countries is 80-90% And on top of that, Apple only sold around 10 million first gen iPhones. How many do you think are still in the wild?
  - AnthonyMouse 4y ago
    > I’m arguing that my 2010 Dell Core2Duo that had 8GB RAM, a 500GB hard drive, gigabit Ethernet and a 1920x1200 display has specs that in some ways are equivalent to a computer you could buy today and has hardware capable of running the latest browsers, the latest version of Office has enough RAM, has wired Ethernet that is still capable of completely taking advantage of my gigabit Ethernet and has wireless N. The Core 2 Duo is so old they don't even test it against the modern benchmark suites, but the Pentium Dual Core is the same chip with a different amount of L2 cache: https://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/65?vs=67 https://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/65?vs=67 The difference between these and modern CPUs is stark: https://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/2693?vs=2911 https://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/2693?vs=2911 But the Core 2 Duo is still useful for many of the things it could do at introduction. As is the original iPhone. > A 2007 iPhone has a crappy display, not enough memory or processing power to run a modern web browser "Modern web browsers" are more efficient than old ones. It's modern web pages that are resource hogs, but that depends on the page. > What are children going go do with it if it can’t even use the modern web? I hear the kids are into texting. > They would be much better off getting one of the many $40 unsubsidized unlocked phones you can buy on Amazon. The ones that aren't actually unsubsidized because they're full of crapware? > And from working with different educational institutions, I know for a fact that they think old computers are more trouble than they are worth and would much rather have a bunch of low cost ChromeBooks. Google designed ChromeBooks as a mechanism to get people into their ecosystem. They allow the administrators to externalize the cost of that onto the kids, and they're under enough resource constraints that they're willing to do it, but that doesn't make it in the best interest of the kids. Given the choice between Chromebooks and "Core 2 Duo laptops" running some Debian derivative, the kids would get more out of the latter, even if they're slower. And have higher administrative costs because the kids can mess with them -- that's how they learn about computers. > The first gen iPhone couldn’t support hotspot functionality nor could it do wifi calling. You don't use the phone as a hotspot, you use a hotspot to connect the phone to the internet via WiFi as a workaround for its obsolete cell modem that Apple chose not to make replaceable. And WiFi calling is an app, not a characteristic of the hardware. > Again, why try to keep an old half functioning phone when you could buy a much more capable $30 Android phone. Less crapware, less e-waste, save $30 (recurring, since the crap Android phone will probably be out of support again in a year). > Even in developing countries the average phone user has a much better phone than the original phone. The phone penetration rate even in the poorest countries is 80-90% But many of those devices don't have significantly better hardware than the original iPhone... > And on top of that, Apple only sold around 10 million first gen iPhones. How many do you think are still in the wild? Not as many as there would have been. But even if they don't want to support it themselves, what's their excuse for not publishing their hardware documentation so someone else can do it?

AnthonyMouse 4y ago

> What could you do with it in 2012? Now you're arguing against yourself. An original iPhone is much more capable than an i386. > Yes, as far as I know, the iTunes app still supports all iPods and iPhones. You can sync your music. And you can fill all of its massive 4GB or 8GB of storage. But as you point out, the storage is quite small. The hardware could perfectly well stream over WiFi, until you take away security updates and the ability to install the app. > It was a much better NAS than trying to repurpose an iPhone with very bad Wifi. A modern one would be better still, but I'm trying to use the thing I already have sitting in a drawer, not acquire something else. And sometimes the performance is irrelevant. If I'm just using it for automated backups I don't much care if it finishes in one minute or ten. > You are going to “read text” on a 3.5 inch 320x480 Poot resolution screen in 2023? Maybe I wouldn't, but some kid whose alternative is having no device at all, sure. > And you want Apple to continue supporting a “phone” that can’t be used as a phone anymore? It was never just a phone, but hotspot + WiFi calling and it still is a phone. To say nothing of Signal or similar. Your argument comes down to "newer things are better," but that isn't the same as older things are trash. Until you stop updating them and refuse to provide the documentation needed for anybody else to do it.

scarface74 4y ago
> Now you're arguing against yourself. An original iPhone I’m arguing that my 2010 Dell Core2Duo that had 8GB RAM, a 500GB hard drive, gigabit Ethernet and a 1920x1200 display has specs that in some ways are equivalent to a computer you could buy today and has hardware capable of running the latest browsers, the latest version of Office has enough RAM, has wired Ethernet that is still capable of completely taking advantage of my gigabit Ethernet and has wireless N. A 2007 iPhone has a crappy display, not enough memory or processing power to run a modern web browser and can’t actually function as a phone. My old first gen iPad crashes repeatedly on modern web pages. Of course I have newer devices. The earliest iPhone that has any decent hardware to handle the modern web is the iPhone 5s. Apple just a released a security update for it recently but What are children going go do with it if it can’t even use the modern web? They would be much better off getting one of the many $40 unsubsidized unlocked phones you can buy on Amazon. And from working with different educational institutions, I know for a fact that they think old computers are more trouble than they are worth and would much rather have a bunch of low cost ChromeBooks. If you want to help a child, give money to the organizations instead of junk computers. > It was never just a phone, but hotspot + WiFi calling and it still is a phone. To say nothing of Signal or similar The first gen iPhone couldn’t support hotspot functionality nor could it do wifi calling. Again, why try to keep an old half functioning phone when you could buy a much more capable $30 Android phone. Even in developing countries the average phone user has a much better phone than the original phone. The phone penetration rate even in the poorest countries is 80-90% And on top of that, Apple only sold around 10 million first gen iPhones. How many do you think are still in the wild?
- AnthonyMouse 4y ago
  > I’m arguing that my 2010 Dell Core2Duo that had 8GB RAM, a 500GB hard drive, gigabit Ethernet and a 1920x1200 display has specs that in some ways are equivalent to a computer you could buy today and has hardware capable of running the latest browsers, the latest version of Office has enough RAM, has wired Ethernet that is still capable of completely taking advantage of my gigabit Ethernet and has wireless N. The Core 2 Duo is so old they don't even test it against the modern benchmark suites, but the Pentium Dual Core is the same chip with a different amount of L2 cache: https://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/65?vs=67 https://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/65?vs=67 The difference between these and modern CPUs is stark: https://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/2693?vs=2911 https://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/2693?vs=2911 But the Core 2 Duo is still useful for many of the things it could do at introduction. As is the original iPhone. > A 2007 iPhone has a crappy display, not enough memory or processing power to run a modern web browser "Modern web browsers" are more efficient than old ones. It's modern web pages that are resource hogs, but that depends on the page. > What are children going go do with it if it can’t even use the modern web? I hear the kids are into texting. > They would be much better off getting one of the many $40 unsubsidized unlocked phones you can buy on Amazon. The ones that aren't actually unsubsidized because they're full of crapware? > And from working with different educational institutions, I know for a fact that they think old computers are more trouble than they are worth and would much rather have a bunch of low cost ChromeBooks. Google designed ChromeBooks as a mechanism to get people into their ecosystem. They allow the administrators to externalize the cost of that onto the kids, and they're under enough resource constraints that they're willing to do it, but that doesn't make it in the best interest of the kids. Given the choice between Chromebooks and "Core 2 Duo laptops" running some Debian derivative, the kids would get more out of the latter, even if they're slower. And have higher administrative costs because the kids can mess with them -- that's how they learn about computers. > The first gen iPhone couldn’t support hotspot functionality nor could it do wifi calling. You don't use the phone as a hotspot, you use a hotspot to connect the phone to the internet via WiFi as a workaround for its obsolete cell modem that Apple chose not to make replaceable. And WiFi calling is an app, not a characteristic of the hardware. > Again, why try to keep an old half functioning phone when you could buy a much more capable $30 Android phone. Less crapware, less e-waste, save $30 (recurring, since the crap Android phone will probably be out of support again in a year). > Even in developing countries the average phone user has a much better phone than the original phone. The phone penetration rate even in the poorest countries is 80-90% But many of those devices don't have significantly better hardware than the original iPhone... > And on top of that, Apple only sold around 10 million first gen iPhones. How many do you think are still in the wild? Not as many as there would have been. But even if they don't want to support it themselves, what's their excuse for not publishing their hardware documentation so someone else can do it?