5 ms·

I work in the refurb division of an e-waste recycling company. Due to licensing costs and our certifications, we can't sell anything with Windows. My coworkers

I work in the refurb division of an e-waste recycling company. Due to licensing costs and our certifications, we can't sell anything with Windows. My coworkers install Ubuntu, but I install Linux Mint. We don't have any clue if people keep using Linux or install Windows, but it's cool to think we're helping to move this needle. Edit: might as well link to the merch: https://www.ebay.com/str/evolutionecycling https://www.ebay.com/str/evolutionecycling

tossandthrow 1y ago
My intuition is that most people, unless they have specific needs, just keep it. Most people likely don't have an opinion besides being able to browse the web and will not even be aware that they are not using Windows. So this is great work! Keep it up!
whizzter 1y ago
I think this plays a huge part, is it elders/poorer/others that receive these machines? A new machine for an enterprise or gamer will probably retain windows because it's needed but people not using their computers for more than surfing will be happy enough. On that side-note I would also not be surprised if people are leaving "computers" altogether in favor of phones, it's a capable enough computer today for most lay-people, my ex and her parents don't have computers anymore and my daughter hardly uses her either. Those that actually need computers such as developers are more prone to use Linux anyhow (especially when Microsoft is pushing annoying features such as forced reboots for those dropping their computers anyhow onto powerusers).
- WJW 1y ago
  Anecdotal evidence, but Steams' Proton compatibility layer that lets you run Windows-only games on Linux works really really well. I haven't had to log into years and years by now.
  - fmbb 1y ago
    Same. Finally no reason to boot Windows on any machine.
  - latexr 1y ago
    I’ve been wanting to do this for years on an old (and severely underpowered) MacBook Pro which I use with Windows exclusively for Games. Do you have any recommendation for an extremely lightweight Linus distro which installs and runs Steam fine? It would be used exclusively for that, so it shouldn’t run a ton of background stuff.
    - tomrod 1y ago
      Depends on your view of lightweight, but probably XFCE Ubuntu (Xubuntu) will serve you great. Full featured without a ton of bloat, historically.
      - latexr 1y ago
        > Depends on your view of lightweight Basically, what I care is that as I’m running the game, the system is consuming as few resources as possible. It’s an outdated machine, so every bit matters. > probably XFCE Ubuntu (Xubuntu) Thank you. Will check it out.
        tomrod 1y ago
        I'm a big fan of Linux. My small business and personal life run on it. You can download XFCE/Ubuntu spin at https://xubuntu.org/download/ https://xubuntu.org/download/. If you develop on your Apple system, it will be pretty similar except - App Installation via repositories is more common than single program installs. No DMG files. There is a similar concept to DMG with "snap" installs. Steam should probably be installed via a snap. You trust the producer (Valve). But most software and security should come through repos (in CLI, sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade) - Home directory is /home/<username> Much of the rest is similar -- Apple's BSD and Linux share a common Unix design progenitor. Linux is way open to rewipe, just pay attention that you don't lose files. My first day on Linux in the mid 2000s, I somehow overwrite the file system allocation table with the content of an MP3. It was recoverable! Good luck, and have fun!
- theandrewbailey 1y ago
  > I think this plays a huge part, is it elders/poorer/others that receive these machines? I know that a large portion of our business is to other resellers and businesses. FWIW, long before I started working here, I replaced XP with Xubuntu on my parent's computer about 15 years ago. I told them that "it works like Windows[0]", showed them how to check email, browse the web, play solitare, and shut down. Even the random HP printer and scanner worked great! I expected a call from them to "put it back to what it was", but it never happened. (The closest was Mom wondering why solitare (the gnome-games version) was different, then guided her on how to change the game type to klondike.) [0] If "it [Xubuntu] works like Windows" offended you, I'd like to point out that most people don't care about how operating system kernels are designed. They care about things like a start menu, and that the X in the corner closes programs.
  - keyringlight 1y ago
    One thing I wonder about with people moving to linux is whether "it works like windows" can act as a safe and comfortable landing point, but then how many people explore and prefer the options that they then have access to. One aspect MS has been criticized for over the past few versions of windows is that they are opinionated about how the base windows UI operates and looks for a very large number of users. One of the things I find interesting on the subreddits for some distros is a lot of posts is showing off how they've customized things, so you can nudge people towards the theming support or panel components you can swap out, or that you can have drastically different DEs with different operation models yet handle the same applications.
- bargainbin 1y ago
  Would just like to add it’s not needed so much now. I’m a pretty avid gamer and I’ve been using Bazzite as my OS now for months without issue. Proton has completely changed the game (pun not intended). All that’s really missing now is the big studios who won’t release their anticheat for Linux.
- techjamie 1y ago
  > I think this plays a huge part, is it elders/poorer/others that receive these machines? I got my hands on a Dell that was retired out of an office somewhere for $30+shipping. Add the cost of a couple HDDs, time spent removing a disc drive and installing Linux, I got myself a cheap backup server on my LAN. They're great for machines you don't want to drop a lot on for basic utilities.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
shaunpud 1y ago
I thought the Windows license was burned into the BIOS, so a reinstall would pick it up automatically?
- aquova 1y ago
  That might be even worse then, you'd be reselling a machine which was licensed under the previous owner's Windows key
  - art0rz 1y ago
    How is that worse when the key is bound to the hardware and non-transferable anyway?
    - master-lincoln 1y ago
      why would it be non-transferable?
      - art0rz 1y ago
        Sorry, I thought it was a reply to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44581124 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44581124
      - deleted 1y ago
        [deleted]
      - mr_toad 1y ago
        OEM licenses are legally (and practically) tied to the machine. There’s no way to transfer it.
  - tremon 1y ago
    In case of OEM, the license is never directly owned by the owner of the machine; the license is tied to the hardware, and you're selling it on with its license key attached. If you activate Windows using a bought license, that license does not get copied into the hardware.
exiguus 1y ago
Actually, as a long time Linux Desktop user, i have at least 4, refurbished bought Notebooks in my place yet. Beside the 4, another 3 new new bought Notebooks. The reason why I buy refurbished is, that my use-cases don't need the newest hardware and for a long time, older hardware was more compatible with Linux and BSD for me. Also, you get for a small price, high quality hardware. If you now ask yourself, why that many notebooks? Notebooks are like handbags. They have to match the occasion.
- tempfile 1y ago
  I am the same. I decided a few years ago that I really really like the thinkpad t450, and have gradually bought 5 of them online for a total cost of about 300 USD. I may never need to buy a laptop ever again.
  - exiguus 1y ago
    Yes, over the past 15 years I bought at least a dozen used thinkpads of the X series (x201, x220, x230 and x1). Most of them are now with other family members and friends (they are now also Linux Desktop user). And I still use 3 of them. One daily, the other weekly, and the 3rd for conferences. Beside that, I am also a fan of the T and yet of the P series. And I have a small collection of thinkpads with the big blue logo from the A and R series, but that's mostly just for fun.
    - tempfile 1y ago
      I could never get into the smaller x series thinkpads. The 14 inch screens on the T4X0 are just right for me.
- sevensor 1y ago
  Agreed! Old laptops are more than powerful enough for Linux, and I like having purpose-oriented computers. The hobby programming computer doesn’t have games on it and is at any rate too weak to run them. The music laptop has every flac I ever ripped from a CD, and precious little disk space for anything else. And so on.
RALaBarge 1y ago
Hey, that seems like a cool gig
- theandrewbailey 1y ago
  It is! If my supervisor didn't kick everyone out at 5 and lock the place, I'd probably work all night everynight nerding out over everything in there.
sevensor 1y ago
The link is appreciated! I like the selection of ruggedized laptops.
- theandrewbailey 1y ago
  Thanks! I've been going through my to-do stack, and there was quite a few there. They've been selling fast! I've got a stack of Toughbooks to go through, too... someday.
Pxtl 1y ago
How do you keep them auto-updated? I've just started on Mint and I'm disappointed how the software installer/updater still needs the admin password.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- tremon 1y ago
  You can either configure unattended updates (e.g. cron-apt or unattended-upgrade), or you can give system administration privileges to other users so they can accept pending updates. I don't think the latter is granular enough to only allow package upgrades, it also allows installing/removing packages.
- jcgl 1y ago
  That’s surprising to hear. It’s been many years since I ran Ubuntu, but I never get a password prompt for the updater on Fedora.
kristopolous 1y ago
I've sold linux mint laptops on ebay and I always reach out after sale basically saying "just to be clear, this isn't running windows, it's linux. I'll be happy to cancel if this isn't what you expected" and 100% of the time the person was like "yes! Linux is what I wanted" Well alright then, there you go...
3abiton 1y ago
I did something similar back in the before times, an initiative that takes donated devices and give them a second life to people who need it. We had major resistance back then to anything linux.
xnx 1y ago
Have you considered ChromeOS Flex?

tossandthrow 1y ago

My intuition is that most people, unless they have specific needs, just keep it. Most people likely don't have an opinion besides being able to browse the web and will not even be aware that they are not using Windows. So this is great work! Keep it up!

whizzter 1y ago

I think this plays a huge part, is it elders/poorer/others that receive these machines? A new machine for an enterprise or gamer will probably retain windows because it's needed but people not using their computers for more than surfing will be happy enough. On that side-note I would also not be surprised if people are leaving "computers" altogether in favor of phones, it's a capable enough computer today for most lay-people, my ex and her parents don't have computers anymore and my daughter hardly uses her either. Those that actually need computers such as developers are more prone to use Linux anyhow (especially when Microsoft is pushing annoying features such as forced reboots for those dropping their computers anyhow onto powerusers).

WJW 1y ago
Anecdotal evidence, but Steams' Proton compatibility layer that lets you run Windows-only games on Linux works really really well. I haven't had to log into years and years by now.
- fmbb 1y ago
  Same. Finally no reason to boot Windows on any machine.
- latexr 1y ago
  I’ve been wanting to do this for years on an old (and severely underpowered) MacBook Pro which I use with Windows exclusively for Games. Do you have any recommendation for an extremely lightweight Linus distro which installs and runs Steam fine? It would be used exclusively for that, so it shouldn’t run a ton of background stuff.
  - tomrod 1y ago
    Depends on your view of lightweight, but probably XFCE Ubuntu (Xubuntu) will serve you great. Full featured without a ton of bloat, historically.
    - latexr 1y ago
      > Depends on your view of lightweight Basically, what I care is that as I’m running the game, the system is consuming as few resources as possible. It’s an outdated machine, so every bit matters. > probably XFCE Ubuntu (Xubuntu) Thank you. Will check it out.
      - tomrod 1y ago
        I'm a big fan of Linux. My small business and personal life run on it. You can download XFCE/Ubuntu spin at https://xubuntu.org/download/ https://xubuntu.org/download/. If you develop on your Apple system, it will be pretty similar except - App Installation via repositories is more common than single program installs. No DMG files. There is a similar concept to DMG with "snap" installs. Steam should probably be installed via a snap. You trust the producer (Valve). But most software and security should come through repos (in CLI, sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade) - Home directory is /home/<username> Much of the rest is similar -- Apple's BSD and Linux share a common Unix design progenitor. Linux is way open to rewipe, just pay attention that you don't lose files. My first day on Linux in the mid 2000s, I somehow overwrite the file system allocation table with the content of an MP3. It was recoverable! Good luck, and have fun!
theandrewbailey 1y ago
> I think this plays a huge part, is it elders/poorer/others that receive these machines? I know that a large portion of our business is to other resellers and businesses. FWIW, long before I started working here, I replaced XP with Xubuntu on my parent's computer about 15 years ago. I told them that "it works like Windows[0]", showed them how to check email, browse the web, play solitare, and shut down. Even the random HP printer and scanner worked great! I expected a call from them to "put it back to what it was", but it never happened. (The closest was Mom wondering why solitare (the gnome-games version) was different, then guided her on how to change the game type to klondike.) [0] If "it [Xubuntu] works like Windows" offended you, I'd like to point out that most people don't care about how operating system kernels are designed. They care about things like a start menu, and that the X in the corner closes programs.
- keyringlight 1y ago
  One thing I wonder about with people moving to linux is whether "it works like windows" can act as a safe and comfortable landing point, but then how many people explore and prefer the options that they then have access to. One aspect MS has been criticized for over the past few versions of windows is that they are opinionated about how the base windows UI operates and looks for a very large number of users. One of the things I find interesting on the subreddits for some distros is a lot of posts is showing off how they've customized things, so you can nudge people towards the theming support or panel components you can swap out, or that you can have drastically different DEs with different operation models yet handle the same applications.
bargainbin 1y ago
Would just like to add it’s not needed so much now. I’m a pretty avid gamer and I’ve been using Bazzite as my OS now for months without issue. Proton has completely changed the game (pun not intended). All that’s really missing now is the big studios who won’t release their anticheat for Linux.
techjamie 1y ago
> I think this plays a huge part, is it elders/poorer/others that receive these machines? I got my hands on a Dell that was retired out of an office somewhere for $30+shipping. Add the cost of a couple HDDs, time spent removing a disc drive and installing Linux, I got myself a cheap backup server on my LAN. They're great for machines you don't want to drop a lot on for basic utilities.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

shaunpud 1y ago

I thought the Windows license was burned into the BIOS, so a reinstall would pick it up automatically?

aquova 1y ago
That might be even worse then, you'd be reselling a machine which was licensed under the previous owner's Windows key
- art0rz 1y ago
  How is that worse when the key is bound to the hardware and non-transferable anyway?
  - master-lincoln 1y ago
    why would it be non-transferable?
    - art0rz 1y ago
      Sorry, I thought it was a reply to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44581124 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44581124
    - deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
    - mr_toad 1y ago
      OEM licenses are legally (and practically) tied to the machine. There’s no way to transfer it.
- tremon 1y ago
  In case of OEM, the license is never directly owned by the owner of the machine; the license is tied to the hardware, and you're selling it on with its license key attached. If you activate Windows using a bought license, that license does not get copied into the hardware.

exiguus 1y ago

Actually, as a long time Linux Desktop user, i have at least 4, refurbished bought Notebooks in my place yet. Beside the 4, another 3 new new bought Notebooks. The reason why I buy refurbished is, that my use-cases don't need the newest hardware and for a long time, older hardware was more compatible with Linux and BSD for me. Also, you get for a small price, high quality hardware. If you now ask yourself, why that many notebooks? Notebooks are like handbags. They have to match the occasion.

tempfile 1y ago
I am the same. I decided a few years ago that I really really like the thinkpad t450, and have gradually bought 5 of them online for a total cost of about 300 USD. I may never need to buy a laptop ever again.
- exiguus 1y ago
  Yes, over the past 15 years I bought at least a dozen used thinkpads of the X series (x201, x220, x230 and x1). Most of them are now with other family members and friends (they are now also Linux Desktop user). And I still use 3 of them. One daily, the other weekly, and the 3rd for conferences. Beside that, I am also a fan of the T and yet of the P series. And I have a small collection of thinkpads with the big blue logo from the A and R series, but that's mostly just for fun.
  - tempfile 1y ago
    I could never get into the smaller x series thinkpads. The 14 inch screens on the T4X0 are just right for me.
sevensor 1y ago
Agreed! Old laptops are more than powerful enough for Linux, and I like having purpose-oriented computers. The hobby programming computer doesn’t have games on it and is at any rate too weak to run them. The music laptop has every flac I ever ripped from a CD, and precious little disk space for anything else. And so on.

RALaBarge 1y ago

Hey, that seems like a cool gig

theandrewbailey 1y ago
It is! If my supervisor didn't kick everyone out at 5 and lock the place, I'd probably work all night everynight nerding out over everything in there.

sevensor 1y ago

The link is appreciated! I like the selection of ruggedized laptops.

theandrewbailey 1y ago
Thanks! I've been going through my to-do stack, and there was quite a few there. They've been selling fast! I've got a stack of Toughbooks to go through, too... someday.

Pxtl 1y ago

How do you keep them auto-updated? I've just started on Mint and I'm disappointed how the software installer/updater still needs the admin password.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
tremon 1y ago
You can either configure unattended updates (e.g. cron-apt or unattended-upgrade), or you can give system administration privileges to other users so they can accept pending updates. I don't think the latter is granular enough to only allow package upgrades, it also allows installing/removing packages.
jcgl 1y ago
That’s surprising to hear. It’s been many years since I ran Ubuntu, but I never get a password prompt for the updater on Fedora.

kristopolous 1y ago

I've sold linux mint laptops on ebay and I always reach out after sale basically saying "just to be clear, this isn't running windows, it's linux. I'll be happy to cancel if this isn't what you expected" and 100% of the time the person was like "yes! Linux is what I wanted" Well alright then, there you go...

3abiton 1y ago

I did something similar back in the before times, an initiative that takes donated devices and give them a second life to people who need it. We had major resistance back then to anything linux.

xnx 1y ago

Have you considered ChromeOS Flex?