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<p>Yes. Of course, it's marketing. <br>
</p>
<p>I'm just amazed by all the people who buy into the 'latest and
greatest' concept. <br>
</p>
<p>This issue is even worse with cars. I was just given a 2007
Toyota Camry with only 37000 miles on it. It looks like models
that are a year or two newer or a year or two older. There are
still parts available. This thing should keep running for a LONG
time if I take good care of it. <br>
</p>
<p>I have a friend at a body shop. By contrast to my Toyota, the new
cars are stuck in an electronics feature war. Each year, the
tchotchkes get better and better. But, according to a friend,
replacement parts (at least, as far as body parts go) are
extremely expensive - about $4K for a mirror on some cars, and on
other cars, parts just are NOT available--or you have to wait
until they ARE available. The dealers don't talk about parts in
their ads.</p>
<p>I know of people who won't buy a car less than eight or nine
years old, because of parts availability and parts cost issues.
There's no Linux for cars -- if something fails, and you can't buy
(or afford) replacement parts, you're in real trouble.</p>
<p>I plan to stay with my new (just broken in) 'old' car. It's
reliable, repairable, doesn't have exotic electronics that change
from year to year -- and it gets me where I want to go.</p>
<p>In 2018, I wrote an article on Connected Cars for Forbes
Insights. It's interesting stuff - but we're a while away from the
technologies that will power it, and even longer away from
figuring out how to handle both the new, compliant cars, and
those that can't connect to the systems that run it.<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 12/31/2019 1:19 PM, Lynn Greiner via
Ipg-smz wrote:<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal">It’s all marketing – it’s in companies’
best interest to get people to buy new stuff so they maintain
their revenue streams. Thus Y is the “X-killer”. The world is
littered with the corpses of last year’s model, if you believe
the hype (also, subscription and streaming models are simply
revenue tools – I’d rather have my movie on DVD and not be at
the mercy of some streaming service). My previous desktop was
retired after about 8 or 9 years, after it suffered a
catastrophic hardware failure that would have been too
expensive to fix. The one before it went 9 years and had to be
put aside because replacement parts weren’t available. Current
machine is 4, I think – had it for a couple of years before
the other desktop died, since I needed Win10 for some things
and the vendor refused to support Win10 on the old box. I can
run Linux on the new system too, of course – I configured it
with a ton of RAM so I could create VMs.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<div>
<div style="border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1
1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in">
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>From:</b> Ipg-smz
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:ipg-smz-bounces@netpress.org"><ipg-smz-bounces@netpress.org></a> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Mark
Brownstein via Ipg-smz<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, December 31, 2019 3:51 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:ipg-smz@netpress.org">ipg-smz@netpress.org</a><br>
<b>Cc:</b> Mark Brownstein <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:IPG@brownstein.com"><IPG@brownstein.com></a><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [Ipg-smz] eBay vendors selling used
laptops with Linux Mint installed<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p>The whole issue of 'obsolete' has been a bit of a puzzle to
me, too. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p>Why is it necessary to get the latest and greatest? Why is a
phone, for example (maybe an iPhone 6 or a Galaxy S8) that was
once the latest and greatest -- and still works fine -
suddenly obsolete when a new model comes along? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p>Why is Word 10 (which I use to teach a 100 year old nun, and
usually use for most of my projects) obsolete - even though it
still works fine for me, and meets almost all of my needs? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p>The once state-of-the-art (or almost) Dell notebook that you
wrote about was hot shit a decade or so ago -- sure, new
software may require more resources - but this thing is still
powerful, and will do Linux Mint very well. With good desktop
apps - and a lot of apps that do things that are similar to
the Windows or Mac apps (or some ported across platforms to
provide equivalent features and capabilities) - why NOT keep
an 'obsolete' machine alive and vital? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p>This isn't quite like it was in the mid '90s when the Pentium
or 80264 came out, and some apps wouldn't run on an earlier
CPU. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p>I've been thinking about putting Linux on one of my virtual
machines and taking it for a spin.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><o:p> </o:p></p>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">On 12/31/2019 9:45 AM, Phil Shapiro via
Ipg-smz wrote:<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<blockquote style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt">
<div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:black"> I've noticed several
eBay vendors are selling used laptops with Linux Mint
installed. I sometimes buy these<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:black">and resell them to
community members at cost. I'm then able to provide
free tech support via my public library job.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:black"> In some ways
my job is analogous to an open source Apple genius bar
-- although I'm given no scripts of what I can<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:black">and can't say. I just
give people the best possible advice and support I
can. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:black"> Anyway, there
might be an interesting story about Linux finding its
way into communities via eBay. I can.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:black">pass along the vendors
names, if anyone might be interested in running with
this.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:black"> An interesting
side angle to this -- the vendors would not be
installing Linux Mint if there were no demand<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:black">for it... Another
angle, I installed Linux Mint 19.3xfce on a 2002 Dell
Dimension 4550 desktop this week. Darn<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:black">computer feels
pretty snappy to me. Without Linux, that computer
would be out of commission. With Linux installed,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:black">it could see a few more
years of use.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:black"> Too often tech
professionals use the word "obsolete" as if it were a
factual statement, rather than a statement of opinion.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:black">If you're a refugee
from some war torn country, a 2002 computer with Linux
installed would be a dream system to have at home.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:black"> If your name
were J.K. Rowling - and you were receiving public
assistance -- you could use such a computer to write
your<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:black">first books.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:black"> Phil<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:black">-- <o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:black">--<br>
Phil Shapiro, <a href="mailto:pshapiro@his.com"
moz-do-not-send="true">pshapiro@his.com</a><br>
<a href="http://www.his.com/~pshapiro/"
moz-do-not-send="true">http://www.his.com/~pshapiro/</a>briefbio.html<br>
<a href="http://www.twitter.com/philshapiro"
moz-do-not-send="true">http://www.twitter.com/philshapiro</a><br>
<a href="http://www.his.com/~pshapiro/stories"
moz-do-not-send="true">http://www.his.com/~pshapiro/stories</a>.menu.html<br>
<br>
"Wisdom begins with wonder." - Socrates<br>
"Learning happens thru gentleness."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:black">"We
must reinvent a future free of blinders so that we
can choose from real options." David Suzuki</span><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
<br>
<o:p></o:p></p>
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