7mo ago

Alex Krokus

Elders [Alex Krokus]

https://x.com/alexkrokus?lang=en

152 comments

My Laptop will be 15 years old this year.
It was running Vista when I bought it, then upgraded to Win 7, and now runs whatever flavor of Linux I feel like installing.
Battery is shot. Screen connection is iffy, but works if you wiggle it. Several keys stopped working after I accidentally threw up on it, but I can use an onscreen keyboard for those.
Still runs fine. She's a trooper.
- I'm not one to kink shame, but anyone who throws up on a laptop on purpose needs help.
  
  I'm guessing alcohol. I had a friend throw up on a 20 year old laptop and that finally killed it.

Next month is my desktops CPU model's 10th birthmonth. Still my default computer.
- Absolutely, a ten year old computer today is still capable of doing pretty much everything that most people use computers for. It's not like the old days when every few years a new tier of computer would come out that made older devices no longer capable of doing what people wanted.
  
  “By the time you see it on the shelf, it’s already obsolete“
  I ‘member
  
  I was still running a Q6600 (a 2.4 gHz quad core from 2007) until a few years ago. It ran most things acceptably for its entire life - it wasn't until around the time of PS4 Pro/Xbox Whatever ports that it could no longer keep up, and even that was largely due to the other components I was restricted to on such an old motherboard.
  That thing was also a tank. The CPU cooler was stock and the thermal paste had degraded and separated to the point it idled at 65c, but I never had a single hardware fault in nearly fifteen years of running it. I kind of miss it.
  
  It depends on how good it was to start with. I have a machine from 2006 that is usable for daily tasks. I also have a netbook from 2009 that can barely do anything.
- One hit 12 before I retired it… and now it’s a network file and web server.
  
  Yup. My old gaming rig is now quietly humming away in the basement as my dedicated media server.

You feel sorry for ze little old computer. Zis is because you crazy. It is just a machine; it has no feelings.
It is working just as well as it was 10 years ago and capable of all the same things now as it was back then. Nothing has changed except your expectations of it. That's right, there's nothing wrong with it -- in reality, you're the problem.
You monster.
- Not really. As it’s been updated over the years with new features the OS has heavier usage on the hardware. Also if it’s still got a hard drive in there chances are it’s dying after 10 years
  
  Running an OS significantly newer than original on a computer gets filed under "expectations." Nobody removed their Amiga can't run Windows 98, either. If it is 10 years old, its original OS was Windows 8, updates for which ended in 2016 (or last year, for Windows 8.1). No new bloat after that!
  But even so, unless the computer in question is a netbook or something it'll be fine. For reference, I have a ThinkPad laptop that was manufactured in 2012 and I still use it daily. It runs Windows 10 just fine. Updates and all. The latest Corel suite, modern browsers, video editing, no problem. PC performance reached a bit of plateau coincidentally... about 10 years ago.
  The MTBF of even a middling consumer hard drive is, if we are being extremely uncharitable, 300,000 hours. That's 32 and a quarter years of continuous usage and there are vintage hard drives in circulation in perfect working order that are much, much older than that. The main thing this laptop is going to need help with is its battery, which probably is degraded a bit by now.
  
  As it’s been updated over the years with new features the OS has heavier usage on the hardware.
  windows skill issue.
  Also if it’s still got a hard drive in there chances are it’s dying after 10 years
  too bad they soldered those to the motherboard in a ball and grid arrangement type deal, those suck to remove....
  This is kind of like buying a car and not changing the oil and tires and being mad when it totals and kills your family on the highway.
- Well actually, electronics age just like the rest of us, every electron that passes through wears down the component just a little more creating just a little more resistance with each passing use. So in effect the 10 year old laptop does have something resembling getting harder and harder to wake up
  
  Did you just make that up on the spot?
- Assuming that the software updates haven't slowed it down and that it's been kept clean of dust (which also causes it to throttle itself to avoid overheating).
- It is working just as well as it was 10 years ago
  Not if it's running Windows.
- Hello. Why are you French? Thank you!
  
  this comment is fucking brutal dude, i love it.
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBqhIVyfsRg
  
  Or german
- Hey aren't you that knife nerd?!
  
  You'll never pin a single thing on me, copper.
- in reality, you’re the problem.
  NO, IT'S THE TECH INDUSTRY, NOT ME, I'M PERFECTLY FINE!
- Idk man, in my experience laptops break down a hell of a lot faster than PCs
- Electronics most certainly age like you or I. A new off the shelf device will perform measurably better than an identical one with 10 years of wear.
  
  Silicon doesn't age friend. Heat might degrade circuits and harms processors by thermal deformation. But most electronics are designed to stay well under the temperatures that will harm them with throttling and heat management. So, unless you're incredibly negligent with maintenance or intentionally overclocking, most electronics have a way longer potential life span than people use them for. My 15 year old desktop computer was so beefy when I build it that today it still outperforms this year's off the shelf office units in raw speed and processing power, despite being physically about 12 times larger. It's only recently that new games started to tax it beyond performance goals (60fps at 1080p), but get a lower modest expectation (800p at 30 fps) and suddenly she is back in the game. Only thing I'm missing now is lack of on-board bluetooth connectivity and usb-c ports. Even if I were to build a new one, I bet the old beast could go on as a server for decades more.

my 13 years old laptop works good as server. Sometimes he fell asleep when I watch a movie with Jellyfin but it's okey.
- Yeah, I have a 5-year old and a 15-year old laptop downstairs acting as servers, and they are runnjng GREAT.
- I'm using my old laptop as a PleX server. It does pretty well. It has a GTX1050 in it, so not too bad. Saves me having to put real hardware in my NAS
  
  a gtx1050 is so much better than any gpu ive ever had lmao

My 2012 desktop PC died the other day.
I took out all her parts and determined that the fault was with the power supply and with a wonky pci shield on the wifi card. Replaced the psu and straighten the shield with pliers, reapply thermal compound for fun, and bam, shes back.
Its an i73770k lga1155 socket, with 16g DDR3 RAM. They dont make lga1155 sockets anymore, or DDR3 ram, so I would have been out $1600 to replace the CPU, motherboard, and RAM.
But now, she might have another 5 years in her yet. Im determined to keep her around until she's old enough to vote at least.
- My laptop will be old enough to vote next year
- I'm pretty sure you could get a full brand new desktop that is more powerful for much less than $1600...
  
  Probably, but I wouldn't settle for something that's just more powerful, Id want to spend the money to get higher-end current-gen hardware that will last me another 15 years, including upgrading to a good M.2 drive and better GPU. In AUD Id probably be spending at least $2k.
  In fact I still have the birth certificate for my current PC, and I spent $1500 on it in 2012 dollars.
- Way to go. Keep het alive.

At least for me, both my laptop (daily driver) and desktop would be considered old by this comic (2014 and 2017 respectively). Neither of them are struggling with the tasks I mostly use them for (writing notes, programming, light gaming on my desktop).
The only things they are struggling at, are modern video codecs and the ABSOLUTELY BLOATED shitshow that is today's Internet experience.
- If you use an ad blocker it'll speed up your web performance dramatically
  
  I am already using uBO on Firefox on both machines, as well as a Pi-Hole on my network for devices unable to obtain adblockers.
- to be fair, everything struggles with software decoding on modern HEVC codecs (yes i realize HEVC is technically H265 but that's a stupid fucking name, and i refuse to use HEVC and AVC as anything other than generics for the class of codec they're in because that's the only thing that makes sense)
  And the internet, so like. None of this is "new"

At least he looks like he's enjoying making music =)
- Far more than comfort, we old men want most to be useful.

Windows Laptop: "Sure, no problem, just let me install all these updates first. Why don't you go ahead and create a Microsoft account?"
- This is one benefit of still using Windows 7

look at the laptop, he's so happy.
Just enjoying the tunes, and the light workload, content as can be.

I have a 14 year old laptop that runs like a top with debian 12 on it.
- Same with mine, i'm only still to dumb to get it using the old nvidia gpu instead of the intel graphics. Didn't take the time yet to look further into it
- How about installing Gentoo on it?
  
  Not sure the 0.01s of reduced login time is worth the 30 hours it'll take to build the kernel.
  
  Why?
  
  no one is seriously going to install gentoo on an old laptopt just to get it slightly faster. Gentoo is for hobbyists

Thinkpad X230 of my dad still going strong with xfce.

With an SSD and enough RAM, I think old machines are more than capable for most basic task
- Hell, I was gaming on a PC from 2013 all the way into 2022 (i5-4670K, 16GB DDR3 1600, and a 770, later upgraded to a 1070). My CPU stopped meeting the minimum requirement for games around 2018-2019, but it was enough to maintain 60 FPS @ 1080p in all but the most demanding titles. If a pile a money didn't fall in my lap, I'd still be gaming on it today. But now that I've experienced 4K 120Hz gaming in HDR with Ray Tracing and DLSS, I could never go back. It was worth building a new PC for HDR and DLSS alone.
  
  I'm on a similar train. My old PC can still run around half of new games but I can see the struggle. I'm considering going for a mid to low range laptop with Linux for everyday stuff and move my gaming to a Steam Deck. I ran the numbers and this option is around $750 cheaper than building a new mid level PC the way I want it. Unless I get a big downfall, the Deck+Laptop way is gonna have to do in the next year or so.
- I've got an Acer Aspire One from 2008 running Mint that still works fine for web stuff and documents. Plays music too, hut not really video

Ten year old laptop is 2013 (this post seems to be from 2023). That's really not old at all. I use a 17 year old machine and it works great for basic tasks.
- 17? As in 2007? What are the specs on that thing? You running a lightweight linux distro on it? Surely you have an SSD in there and have upgraded the ram.
  
  It's a ThinkPad T61 running Gentoo. I upgraded it to 4GB of RAM and an SSD. Works fine with 10 browser tabs and youtube
  
  linux on an ssd without a DE goes hard as fuck on anything that has no beans in it what so ever.
  WM are the shit.
- i have a couple of 11-12 release year thinkpads, they're super capable, not productivity monsters, but they're fine.

My Mac mini serving as a movie server for nine years after retirement. If the movie starts stuttering back out and go back in, works every time.
- 2008 mbp still working well as my plex server! Ssd really helped it come back to life.
  
  Nice! Mine developed a boot loop error of some kind years ago and never came back. Otherwise, those original Aluminum unibody systems are tanks.

Pfft, I make music with my ten year old laptop.
- what kind?
  
  BEEP BOOP BEEP BOOP!
- Fruity loops?
  
  Bitwig Studio, sound design and modulation focused DAW, with Linux support, from former Ableton devs*. A recent update does allow it to open FL projects (among others) but I haven't tested that part.

I recently resurrected an old desktop computer (linux is great for ding this) I had built in 2009. I upgraded the ram to ~~8Gb~~ 16Gb, replaced the broken graphics card and installed Gnu Guix using the system crafters install guide. I'm not doing any hardcore gaming so it does everything I need it to do. I have a raid store, jellyfin server, and samba share.

My notebook is 8 years old. It was a gaming beast when I got it, now it's not great on most modern releases(1060). It still works really good to be honest, I just stopped using once I got a good desktop computer.
- Heyo yee old laptop gang. I have a 2011 MacBook Pro that I slapped more ram and a SSD into and it works amazingly. I don’t use it for games anymore (I bought it to install Windows and play games) but it handles like 60k photos wonderfully.
  
  I read about this from people like you, but I did NOT have the same experience.
  I recently upgraded a 2011 Pro Macbook with new RAM, and a new battery. I am furious at myself for even wasting the money to do that in the first place.
  The battery, even when brand new from iFixit, barely lasted an hour or two on Youtube while I am at work. Two videos around 15-20 minutes, medium brightness, 720p, and the damn thing barely lasted those two videos. God forbid I want to use it for anything after those!
  I'm assuming it was because the CPU is way way power hungry, which is okay, but DEFINITELY not usable in real situations. My main point is that my side of this situation was not at all good, and to not waste your money!
  
  I did that with a 2010 17” MacBook Pro. It had Windows for games and Mac OSX when I wanted a reliable computer. Finally died on me in ~2022 but otherwise was doing fine. I switched to a tower for games in 2018 and now my friend and I(mostly my far more savvy friend) and working out how to make Linux work reliably because Windows is…ya know.

My Thinkpad would laugh at this
- thinkpeak gang rise up
  
  Yo!
  
  im right here!

If it isn't hp, it can work for 20 years, but with hp laptops, you are lucky if it lasts for 8.
Btw, it works for phones too. I got my dad's redmi 4x from 2017 a month ago. It works suprisingly ok. I am planning to flash lineageos without gapps on it, to not have to use android 7. It should work for another couple of years.
- I know people doesn't like Redmi/Xiaomi, but man what a punch for the money, and "malware" have been inexistant up until very lately (deep malware are everywhere). I bought a (the FX) file explorer for like 5€, there is a totally ok free version too and that's the only thing I needed to have a nice experience (no pub, I know everything is probably tracked like on all phones).
  Got the redmi note (pro?) 2 shipped from alibaba.com a long time ago for < 100€, then the 5, 7 etc.
  Greatest value for sure, they all still work except the 5 that I went swimming with, I cracked the screen on the 7, ...
  The older ones also had swappable batteries (3000 mAh too!) and SD card slot when the concurrences had like 32GB for OS + everything else.
  I'm not a fanboi but my 4 year old phone for 250€ has 6GB RAM & 128 GB storage...
  😎
  
  Well, their newer phones do have a lot of shady things (even the 4x video player demands weird permissions), new mis, especially 11 series are known for being unreliable. I particularly hate the bootloader unlock experience, waiting time, issues with the app (on pc and phone), no linux and USB3 support (I had to use a vm in an old laptop). BTW, I'm angry as today I didn't read the error messages properly and reset it. I wasted a day and now I have to wait another week (or more) to unlock it.
- Nah, not business machines. I've made those last quite a while, even as an undergrad in engineering running simulations that were too heavy for what the machine could actually do.
  Pro tip: need an impromptu white noise generator? Load up some COMSOL or Ansys.
  
  Ok, I admit, I was overgeneralizing. So you mean EliteBooks and ProBooks or some old series, I'm not aware of?

:( he looks so sad
- To me, it looks sad and in pain and later happy, but still in pain.
  
  That's what I'm seeing too. It hurts, but he's glad to have the sense of purpose.

For MacBooks, 10 years is barely broken in. I’ve had MacBook Airs as daily drivers for well over 10 years.
- Resale value is great on them too. I sold my 10 year old MBP (after I paid for an Apple cert battery replacement) for close to 50% of what I paid when it was brand new.
  
  Good for you but who pays that much for that old hardware? While many computers run well beyond 10 years, it's hardly surprising if components break down after that time.
- My early 2015 MBP is still my daily driver for programming, I will never regret spending so much on an MBP when they last this long. I went through two windows laptops in four years before this one. It is starting to show its age with only 8 GB of RAM, but I’m going to use it until it melts haha

My wife’s 10-15? Year old laptop came in clutch last year. I had a guitar-Bluetooth pedal that needed a firmware update and the software wouldn’t run on anything but windows 7 lol
- I dont care if your wife's laptop is a year old, you shouldnt marry minors and you should definitely know her age for sure, you sick fuck.
  
  Whoa hey man, he gave us a range! Next thing we know you'll be demanding he know her name and have met her parents or something crazy like that.
  
  Ooooh okay, I see what you did there

I have an old lightweight laptop that I use for youtube videos from time to time.
Page loads take 3-10 seconds. Video decoding, once it gets going, is great due to dedicated MPEG hardware. But the site itself - well, old man gets there eventually.
Edit: already stripped overhead to the bone by running Bodhi Linux. I may try FF over Chromium in case there's more performance to be had. But the 2GB RAM footprint is really pushing it these days.
- FreeTube?
  
  Possibly. I'll give that shot, thanks.

I remember one of my first machines, a 486DX50 I think, really had a hard time playing mp3 files. But it hasn't been an issue for anything that came later.
- I remember when I had a P60 and mp3 players could barely keep up
  Then winamp came along and whipped the llama's ass

I have a ThinkPad X220 that recently turned 13, with SSD and RAM upgrades, basic maintenance, and Linux it’s still running great for plenty of tasks.
Plus it’s so well built I could probably stick it in a plate carrier and use it as body armour. Doesn’t seem to matter how much it gets dropped or dropped onto, ol’ Thinky keeps on chugging.
- I had an x201 that I sold on to pay for my now "current" (ha) OG Thinkpad Yoga. Sometimes I do miss that old brick.
  Sure, it only had two point touch instead of 10... But it got 11 hours of battery life with the extended (swappable!) pack, a daylight readable display, built in GPS, a fingerprint reader that actually worked, and if anyone tried to steal your laptop you could just hit them with it.
  
  But it got 11 hours of battery life with the extended (swappable!) pack
  The removal of the large and removable batteries from the newer models in the Thinkpad line is one of my major annoyances with Lenovo.

The only computer I have is a 12 year old laptop, it sounds like a jet engine if I try to play a 1080p youtube video, though local 1080p files mostly work fine. I use Shadow for gaming, creative work and anything else that just doesn't work locally and it's crazy how good it is, it never spins the fans much more than its idle speeds when streaming and the input delay is crazy low, unnoticeable 99.99% of the time. Even though I've used this for thousands of hours it still feels like some sci-fi fantasy.
- Maybe YouTube isn't using hardware acceleration, which browser?

Repost already?

Pretty much what i do with my old desktop since coming out here in the data blackhole zone. That and play old arcade games

My 9 year old laptop is currently sitting in two pieces... But only because I wanted to pull the hard drive out for easier transferring of old files I wanted to keep.
When I get back to the main part, I'll be removing 90% of the apps on it, doing everything I can to make it run better, and it will be my hobby shop computer. It was going back and forth between my game room and the garage where I kept my lasers and printers.
If and when it finally bites the dust, it will be given a place of honor amongst the modern tech. Like a transparent top coffee table with all the parts disassembled and arranged inside.
I'm weirdly nostalgic about my electronics.

My 11 year old desktop's starting to go a little senile. I need to find it some new(ish) DDR3 sticks, I think.

Turn your old computer into Lemmy or federated servers.

I still have a Samsung Ultrabook Series 9 with Windows 7 Ultimate laying around. Buddy is over 10 years old and works in a pinch as a replacement device. It's always a pleasure opening it and seeing the custom login screen
I wish I could upgrade it with a USB-C and more RAM but Samsung was really anti consumer back then...

My laptop is around 7 years old now. Still going strong.

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