this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2023
134 points (95.9% liked)
Technology
59207 readers
3234 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
5 years is such an extremely short lifecycle for a laptop
Just a reflection of our wasteful culture. If it was up to the likes of Google, Samsung, etc. we'd all be buying new tech annually.
Precisely! As long as consumers continue to play their game, they’ll keep upping the ante.
My main computers are 8+ years old running Linux and performing astoundingly well.
Unfortunately, 90% of the time a typical non-savvy consumer buys a new machine it’s for all the wrong reasons and they really don’t have to. They just don’t know better.
Given the condition of my kids’ Chromebooks, that lifecycle is just right, plus Chromebooks were a fantastic investment. I did spend over $400 for “nice” (but not high end) Chromebooks, so they were lightweight, excellent battery, durable, and good performance. After 4-5 years, performance and battery are still good for a full school day, but they’re all dinged up, bent and mangled. They’ve been dropped, kicked, stuffed into things, had various liquids spilled into them, etc. they e done well to survive a hard life, but it’s time.
I could have gotten cheap Windows laptops for a similar price, that would not have done nearly as well, by every measure. What a waste that would have been
I think they mean the software support lifecycle from the time of release, not how long the physical hardware lasts.
I also have relatively positive experiences with Chromebooks but also you can buy a Dell Latitude used on ebay and get the same experience. My $200 shop laptop from 2015 (Latitude 7450) which I only stuck an SSD into is going strong despite being kicked, stepped on, dropped, having oil and acetone spilled on it, melted a bit, and subject to other such garage abuse. (Though it is on its 3rd $15 keyboard)
TFA discussed how these unsupported Chromebooks are still for sale on major retail sites like Amazon and Walmart.
I think you missed the point of the article.