[Ipg-smz] eBay vendors selling used laptops with Linux Mint installed

[Mark Brownstein]

The whole issue of 'obsolete' has been a bit of a puzzle to me, too.

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?

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?

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?

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.

I've been thinking about putting Linux on one of my virtual machines and 
taking it for a spin.


On 12/31/2019 9:45 AM, Phil Shapiro via Ipg-smz wrote:
>
>   I've noticed several eBay vendors are selling used laptops with 
> Linux Mint installed.  I sometimes buy these
> and  resell them to community members at cost.  I'm then able to 
> provide free tech support via my public library job.
>
>           In some ways my job is analogous to an open source Apple 
> genius bar -- although I'm given no scripts of what I can
> and can't say. I just give people the best possible advice and support 
> I can.
>
>          Anyway, there might be an interesting story about Linux 
> finding its way into communities via eBay.  I can.
> pass along the vendors names, if anyone might be interested in running 
> with this.
>
>          An interesting side angle to this -- the vendors would not be 
> installing Linux Mint if there were no demand
> for it...  Another angle, I installed Linux Mint 19.3xfce on a 2002 
> Dell Dimension 4550 desktop this week. Darn
> computer feels pretty snappy to me. Without Linux, that computer would 
> be out of commission. With Linux installed,
> it could see a few more years of use.
>
>          Too often tech professionals use the word "obsolete" as if it 
> were a factual statement, rather than a statement of opinion.
> 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.
>
>           If your name were J.K. Rowling - and you were receiving 
> public assistance -- you could use such a computer to write your
> first books.
>
> Phil
>
> -- 
> --
> Phil Shapiro, pshapiro at his.com
> http://www.his.com/~pshapiro/briefbio.html
> http://www.twitter.com/philshapiro
> http://www.his.com/~pshapiro/stories.menu.html
>
> "Wisdom begins with wonder." - Socrates
> "Learning happens thru gentleness."
> "We must reinvent a future free of blinders so that we can choose from 
> real options."  David Suzuki
>
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