!The quirks of aging laptops
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agk's diary
21 January 2025 @ 13:25 UTC
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written on Pinebook Pro
in the living room while the oatmeal cooks
before everyone wakes
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This laptop isn't old. It was made in 2020. Peter
Guo, who lives in Shanghai and writes to gopher
from sdf, wants one in 2025, and laments though
made in Shenzhen, it isn't shipped to China.
Sadly, Pinebook announced this month they no longer
make Pinebook Pros. They'll focus on their e-ink
tablet and look for a new single-board computer to
base a laptop around.
I don't know if Pine64 decided it's "too old," or
some supplier decided a part's "too old," but it's
my most modern laptop and there's nothing I need it
doesn't do. I know my demands are light, but Evy
edited video on it using Kdenlive a few months ago,
no problem.
I didn't even bother putting a lightweight window-
ing system on it. It came with Manjaro. It's fine.
It cost $200. When I broke the first one after a
year of heavy abuse in nursing school, I got this
one. I didn't have time to figure out and fix it.
It's what I think laptops should be: lightweight,
competent, quiet, inexpensive, good battery life,
reasonably private and ergonomic. What's missing is
durable. I miss netbooks.
The first quirk of my laptops: I don't care if they
can suspend or hibernate. Just treat them like they
can't. They have two states: on and off. I think I
had a problem with the old pinebook's battery
draining and then it didn't want to start.
The GPD Win 1 definitely has that problem. The GPD
Win's fix is obnoxious: unscrew the aging plastic
back, unplug the tiny clip connecting the battery
to the single board, and plug it back in, then
screw the aging backplate back on, trying not to
snap off any plastic pieces, strip any threads, or
lose any tiny screws.
But I love the charming little GPD 1. It's a little
clamshell Nintendo DS of a laptop, with clever
controls ("bumpers" on the back of the case to
click mouse buttons like it was a game controller,
joystick mouse, D-pad). It's lightweight and ergo-
nomic for my happy wrists.
Made in: 2016
OS: Windows 10 Home ver.1803 (end of life)
Resolution: 5.5" 1280x720 16:9
CPU: Intel Atom x7-Z8750 @ 1.6GHz
Memory: 1.9GB/3.5GB
The first obvious thing is Windows is heavier than
Manjaro. But sadly no one really ported Linux or
BSDs to the Win 1. Its clever controls were too
clever to be worth writing drivers for a single
device.
A friend gave me the Win 1 almost five years ago
because it was "too old." I can't tell. I use Sea-
monkey internet suite for email and web, which
breaks on some websites, I get on SDF with PuTTY.
I sometimes take offline notes with zimwiki or do
light work in alpine linux via Windows subsystem
for Linux (resize pictures with ImageMagick, type-
set markdown documents with pandoc and groff).
AbiWord is handy for MS Word email attachments.
Tiny palmtops are easier if you don't have to mess
with the touchpad (or joystick!), so it's good to
use programs with predictable keyboard shortcuts.
The two worst things about this little guy: taking
off the backplate if the battery dies and the crack
in the screen when I knocked it on a concrete floor
while teaching CPR last month.
I'm not using the ThinkPad x61, though it still
works, because I loaned the peripherals to Evy for
nursing school and it's buried under papers. I have
to dig it up to look at the Christmas pictures of
our daughter provided to us by her daycare on CD.
Made in: 2008
OS: Debian (i3 windowing system)
Resolution: 1024x768
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory: 4GB?
I messed up the screen when installing a new one
years ago, so there's an annoying little crack in
the top right of the display. The keyboard's heaven
on earth. It has a fan and is loud. It's more power
hungry than the other two laptops. I do actually
send it to suspend when it's plugged in, which it
usually is, with 'systemctl suspend.'
But this little monster just works. It's worked for
seventeen years, thirteen of them with me. I bought
it for $200 off its first owner when she decided it
was "too old." When Evy returns the peripherals,
I'm sure I'll keep using it, wishing it was quieter
or the coil whine would abate. Because it never
actually breaks, I'll never learn to apply thermal
paste or something to quiet it down.
It's not the best for watching youtube. Otherwise I
have no complaints.
I usually don't watch youtube on a laptop though.
My nursing school gave me an iPad Air (4th generat-
ion) with a folio keyboard. I never made an apple
account, so I can't install software, but I deleted
and turned off most everything I could. It's fine
for distractions, scrolling, youtube, and reading
downloaded pdf and epub books.
Made in: 2020
OS: iPadOS 15.6.1
Resolution: 2360x1640 (10.9")
CPU: 2x3.1 GHz and 4x1.82GHz
CPU: (6) @ 1.416GHz
Memory: 4GB
It is distracting. I'm not fond of it in the same
way as I am of the three laptops. Its keyboard no
longer works, making it even more of a passive
consumption device. But it's tough. I'll give it
that. I use the Safari browser, the Books app, and
the Pictures app (to look at screenshots). I used
to get on SDF through the web gateway until the
keyboard stopped working.
I think when someone has unlimited resources,
unlimited power, it's natural to do things
inefficiently. I think that's ugly and destructive.
The good of off-grid solar (which I don't have) is
when it's closely matched to a low level of use. It
drives efficient daylight-drive top-loading refrid-
geration or root cellars, sleeping when it's dark,
decreasing demand when it's cloudy.
The laptops and the tablet each have 4GB of RAM. I
see people on SDF with 16GB and can't imagine what
it's all for! My requirements are humble. I'm not a
computer professional. But if I was, why couldn't I
compile on a shared cluster, like I currently use
SDF? Are all those gigs for games?
If I had more CPU, more GPU, or more RAM, maybe I'd
know what they're for, but I don't think I want to.
I'm afraid it'd be like the iPad, which sometimes
hogs my eyes and cheapens the rest of my life.
