My laptop is almost six years old, so you can probably guess the issue. Yep: hamster died.
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| It was sad. |
I think back to the first laptop I ever operated, an IBM that was thrust into my hands in a meeting by an executive I didn't know who thought I would be able to operate it because I was a youth. He was mistaken. It had one of those TrackPoint mice (mouses?) and I couldn't work it to save my life. The reason I bring it up is this: That laptop was probably new at the time, and there's no way it was able to handle the software that was to come within the next five years. I venture to say that no one ever expected to get five years out of a computer in those heady days.
I wonder why there seems to be more longevity in computers now. Did we hit a good combo of speed, memory, and price that made further obsolescence-causing upgrades unprofitable? Does the average consumer not need anything more expensive, because a cheap machine can handle all the bells and/or whistles one could want? Or was compatibility with storage media the main reason for upgrades leading to obsolescence, a problem that barely exists for the home user now? I wonder. If you have information on this, let me know; use small words and as little jargon as possible. Too much computerese sounds like Wizard talk to me.
Anyway, if I perform routine maintenance I could probably get another five years out of my Acer. Unless I drop it. But I'll probably get a new one this year anyway. It's for the same reason I don't finish the basement -- because I want someplace to stick the old stuff so that I don't have to look at it.
2 comments:
I don't know how much information I have, but I can say I'm pretty near your age, and eventually upgrade fatigue set in. My wife has the newest laptop in the house, a Dell refurb about 3 years old. I have the next newest, her old laptop, probably 7-8 years old. I only have it because it runs Windows 10 and is the only thing I can reliably stream video on.
After that I have two laptops and a desktop, all still running Windows XP. The laptops aren't even portable, their batteries long since fried, and none of these machines is younger than my 13-year-old granddaughter. The desktop machine has actually been running almost continuously for over 20 years, only stopping for power outages and a house move. I'll grant you it's more a science experiment than a usable information station at this point, but it still makes me smile every time I wiggle its (wired) mouse and it wakes up.
As long as I can still websurf and use the software on those, I see no reason to either upgrade or get rid of them.
Hey, Alan -- that's kind of my take. I'm always a "if it ain't broke" kind of guy anyway. Of course, since I use the thing for work, my temporary outage was a great reminder to KEEP BACKUPS UP TO DATE (eek!).
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