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

Wed Jan 1 17:55:25 UTC 2020

Same here. We have a lot of geriatric but functional tech in use.

-----Original Message-----
From: Ipg-smz <ipg-smz-bounces at netpress.org> On Behalf Of Christine Hall via Ipg-smz
Sent: Tuesday, December 31, 2019 11:09 PM
To: ipg-smz at netpress.org
Cc: Christine Hall <christine at fossforce.com>
Subject: Re: [Ipg-smz] eBay vendors selling used laptops with Linux Mint installed

In my house, it's not obsolete until we say it's obsolete.

Christine Hall
Publisher & Editor
FOSS Force: Keeping tech free
http://fossforce.com

On 12/31/19 11:00 PM, Lynn Greiner via Ipg-smz wrote:
> Just ask an iPhone owner who slavishly buys the latest model ever 
> single year 😊
> 
> *From:*Ipg-smz <ipg-smz-bounces at netpress.org> *On Behalf Of *Dennisf63 
> via Ipg-smz
> *Sent:* Tuesday, December 31, 2019 5:53 PM
> *To:* ipg-smz at netpress.org
> *Cc:* Dennisf63 <dennisf63 at wildblue.net>
> *Subject:* Re: [Ipg-smz] eBay vendors selling used laptops with Linux 
> Mint installed
> 
> You young whipper-snappers probably don't remember a time, oh, it was 
> probably back in the 1950s when the term was "planned obsolesence." In 
> them days it was cars, auto-mobiles, when Deetroit was cranking 'em 
> out, adding tail fins and what not, while the Japanese were 
> concentrating on fuel efficient, well built small cars.
> 
> What goes around comes around. Those to don't remember history are 
> condemned to repeat it.
> 
> --
> 
> Dennis Fowler
> 
> P. O. Box 70
> 
> Otego, NY 13825
> 
> dennisf63 at wildblue.net  <mailto:dennisf63 at wildblue.net>
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 12/31/2019 04:19 PM, Lynn Greiner via Ipg-smz wrote:
> 
>     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.
> 
>     *From:* Ipg-smz <ipg-smz-bounces at netpress.org>
>     <mailto:ipg-smz-bounces at netpress.org> *On Behalf Of *Mark Brownstein
>     via Ipg-smz
>     *Sent:* Tuesday, December 31, 2019 3:51 PM
>     *To:* ipg-smz at netpress.org <mailto:ipg-smz at netpress.org>
>     *Cc:* Mark Brownstein <IPG at brownstein.com> <mailto:IPG at brownstein.com>
>     *Subject:* Re: [Ipg-smz] eBay vendors selling used laptops with
>     Linux Mint installed
> 
>     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 <mailto:pshapiro at his.com>
>         http://www.his.com/~pshapiro/
>         <http://www.his.com/%7Epshapiro/>briefbio.html
>         http://www.twitter.com/philshapiro
>         http://www.his.com/~pshapiro/stories
>         <http://www.his.com/%7Epshapiro/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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