4 ms·

I'm still using ~10 year old PCs at both work and home. Running linux, still doing fine.

nosioptar 4mo ago
My 2012 thinkpad still works well. I've got access to a couple newer laptops, but they just dont stack up to the old one.
hamburglar 4mo ago
Same. And my current daily driver laptop cost me $400 9 years ago. You can still do a lot for incredibly cheap.
- LeFantome 4mo ago
  I bought a 2013 MacBook Air for $50 two years ago to take on a backpacking trip. It runs Linux and I use it all the time. I had a video meeting on it this morning. You run OpenCode with Big Pickle on it with decent performance. So you can even vibe code on it for free.
dominicrose 4mo ago
Compared to current computers, the ones from 10 years ago are not that different, especially with all the software updates, unless you want an edgy graphics card or Apple processor. In terms of durability I guess the battery is the less durable part but the rest should be fine if handled with care
- amlib 4mo ago
  And with modern streaming software like Sunshine/Moonlight you can easily defer high performance tasks to a powerful machine at home. You are truly free to use any device from the last 15 years as a somewhat dumb terminal if you invest some time setting those things up... or even easier if you just need ssh.
  - SchemaLoad 4mo ago
    I'm a fairly proficient linux user and I just can not get streaming to work properly and I've dedicated multiple hours to trying to set it up. The built in Steam streaming gets the closest but often just lags out for no obvious reason. Sunshine/moonlight seem to be close to working but weird display issues are constant. I've got it to the point where the steam big picture video streams perfect but when you launch a game the screen size seems to change where I can only see part of the screen on my target device. Feels like a technology that is theoretically entirely possible but the current implementations need a lot of polish.
thewebguyd 4mo ago
Yep. My gaming desktop is an old Ryzen 5, 48GB DDR4 RAM and an old nvidia 1660 super. Plays every game I want to play just fine still at 1080p, and even a few modern titles no problem. Most of my library can be played natively at 1440p too with some settings adjustments. I suspect I can get a good 8-10 more years of use out of it, assuming components don't fail.
- drnick1 4mo ago
  > I suspect I can get a good 8-10 more years of use out of it, assuming components don't fail. That's rather optimistic with that aging GPU. Upgrading to something like an Intel B580 (a $250 upgrade) would give it a second life however.
  - lightedman 4mo ago
    The B580 barely competes with a GTX1080, which I am still using. the idea of buying a new modern card having barely the performance of a card from a decade ago seems absurd on its face.
    - drnick1 4mo ago
      > The B580 barely competes with a GTX1080, which I am still using. That's nonsense, the B580 is substantially faster. https://howmanyfps.com/graphics-cards/comparisons/geforce-gtx-1080-vs-arc-b580 https://howmanyfps.com/graphics-cards/comparisons/geforce-gt...
      - lightedman 4mo ago
        I own both - there is a lot of work Arc's drivers need done to them to actually be able to use their supposed theoretical power. My GTX 1080 delivers more consistent framerates with less stuttering versus the B580. Speed means nothing when you aren't delivering consistency.
- my002 4mo ago
  I mean, surely this depends on what games you want to play. If you're playing mostly indies and retro games, an older desktop will be fine. If you want to play new AAA releases, probably much less so.
drnick1 4mo ago
I recently liberated a couple of old Intel Mac laptops by installing Linux. These machines were not receiving system updates anymore. Even on the older machine with a dual core CPU and 4GB of RAM, GNOME runs well (XFCE would probably be a better choice to save RAM for programs, though). On the newer T2 machine with 8GB of RAM, GNOME feels basically as snappy as on my modern gaming PC.
- normie3000 4mo ago
  Try Google Meet. I have a similar spec Air, and that's where it falls down :'-(
  - lightedman 4mo ago
    Google Meet is trash. Camfrog from over a decade ago trashes it, Zoom, and any other multi-camera meeting room software. I was watching over 150 video streams at once on a Pentium 4 using Camfrog, and now you can't even have more than 5-10 before a computer starts choking. What garbage.
bartvk 4mo ago
Do you use Discord? How much time does it take to start it?
- RankingMember 4mo ago
  Oh boy, that app. I only use it once in a while, and it's slower and more enshittified every time. The last time I opened it, there was now a Verizon ad in the bottom left-hand corner asking me to watch a 30 second video to "win 200 Orbs!", whatever the hell that means.
- zahlman 4mo ago
  The website version works fine.

My 2012 thinkpad still works well. I've got access to a couple newer laptops, but they just dont stack up to the old one.

hamburglar 4mo ago

Same. And my current daily driver laptop cost me $400 9 years ago. You can still do a lot for incredibly cheap.

LeFantome 4mo ago
I bought a 2013 MacBook Air for $50 two years ago to take on a backpacking trip. It runs Linux and I use it all the time. I had a video meeting on it this morning. You run OpenCode with Big Pickle on it with decent performance. So you can even vibe code on it for free.

dominicrose 4mo ago

Compared to current computers, the ones from 10 years ago are not that different, especially with all the software updates, unless you want an edgy graphics card or Apple processor. In terms of durability I guess the battery is the less durable part but the rest should be fine if handled with care

amlib 4mo ago
And with modern streaming software like Sunshine/Moonlight you can easily defer high performance tasks to a powerful machine at home. You are truly free to use any device from the last 15 years as a somewhat dumb terminal if you invest some time setting those things up... or even easier if you just need ssh.
- SchemaLoad 4mo ago
  I'm a fairly proficient linux user and I just can not get streaming to work properly and I've dedicated multiple hours to trying to set it up. The built in Steam streaming gets the closest but often just lags out for no obvious reason. Sunshine/moonlight seem to be close to working but weird display issues are constant. I've got it to the point where the steam big picture video streams perfect but when you launch a game the screen size seems to change where I can only see part of the screen on my target device. Feels like a technology that is theoretically entirely possible but the current implementations need a lot of polish.

thewebguyd 4mo ago

Yep. My gaming desktop is an old Ryzen 5, 48GB DDR4 RAM and an old nvidia 1660 super. Plays every game I want to play just fine still at 1080p, and even a few modern titles no problem. Most of my library can be played natively at 1440p too with some settings adjustments. I suspect I can get a good 8-10 more years of use out of it, assuming components don't fail.

drnick1 4mo ago
> I suspect I can get a good 8-10 more years of use out of it, assuming components don't fail. That's rather optimistic with that aging GPU. Upgrading to something like an Intel B580 (a $250 upgrade) would give it a second life however.
- lightedman 4mo ago
  The B580 barely competes with a GTX1080, which I am still using. the idea of buying a new modern card having barely the performance of a card from a decade ago seems absurd on its face.
  - drnick1 4mo ago
    > The B580 barely competes with a GTX1080, which I am still using. That's nonsense, the B580 is substantially faster. https://howmanyfps.com/graphics-cards/comparisons/geforce-gtx-1080-vs-arc-b580 https://howmanyfps.com/graphics-cards/comparisons/geforce-gt...
    - lightedman 4mo ago
      I own both - there is a lot of work Arc's drivers need done to them to actually be able to use their supposed theoretical power. My GTX 1080 delivers more consistent framerates with less stuttering versus the B580. Speed means nothing when you aren't delivering consistency.
my002 4mo ago
I mean, surely this depends on what games you want to play. If you're playing mostly indies and retro games, an older desktop will be fine. If you want to play new AAA releases, probably much less so.

drnick1 4mo ago

I recently liberated a couple of old Intel Mac laptops by installing Linux. These machines were not receiving system updates anymore. Even on the older machine with a dual core CPU and 4GB of RAM, GNOME runs well (XFCE would probably be a better choice to save RAM for programs, though). On the newer T2 machine with 8GB of RAM, GNOME feels basically as snappy as on my modern gaming PC.

normie3000 4mo ago
Try Google Meet. I have a similar spec Air, and that's where it falls down :'-(
- lightedman 4mo ago
  Google Meet is trash. Camfrog from over a decade ago trashes it, Zoom, and any other multi-camera meeting room software. I was watching over 150 video streams at once on a Pentium 4 using Camfrog, and now you can't even have more than 5-10 before a computer starts choking. What garbage.

bartvk 4mo ago

Do you use Discord? How much time does it take to start it?

RankingMember 4mo ago
Oh boy, that app. I only use it once in a while, and it's slower and more enshittified every time. The last time I opened it, there was now a Verizon ad in the bottom left-hand corner asking me to watch a 30 second video to "win 200 Orbs!", whatever the hell that means.
zahlman 4mo ago
The website version works fine.