That’s true, but the supply vastly outstrips the demand. They may make great Linux machines, but the majority of 10-15 year old computers have little to no economic value.
I am running a plex server on a 2013 lenovo booted with elementaryOS. I used a 2009 Mac mini prior. They don’t all need to become e-waste after 10 years, let alone the typical 5 years or so many people throw their stuff out at.
You can also turn basically any old machine into a video game emulation station.
I’m not saying that old hardware is useless. I make good use out of old hardware too. I have an old i5 Dell from about 2012 running ZoneMinder, a Phenom II system from around 2009 that I use a Linux server, an even older Core 2 Duo system that’s a glorified MP3 player, and even a very early 2000’s Pentium III that I use for a router (sadly I’m going to have to retire it from these duties soon - it can barely handle a 100 mbps DSL connection, and it’s too old and outdated to run the modern router distributions).
However, for every one of those computers I have another one like it sitting in a closet plus a few extras. All the geeks and tinkerers I know are also swimming in old hardware. If I really wanted to get rid of this stuff, I’d have a hard time giving it away. Economically, this stuff is worthless. The supply greatly exceeds the demand(*)
(*) well, except maybe the Pentium III… it’s old enough now that retro gamers may be interested…
Why would you want to though? I can understand the retro market because there is software like games that either won’t run very well, or won’t run at all on modern hardware. I’m in the market for a ‘powerful’ machine circa 2003-2005 for that exact reason.
When it comes to machines made in 2015? I’m not sure there’s a lot you can run on those machines that you couldn’t on modern hardware, apart from Windows 11.
I guess you could use them for things like media servers, but it would have to be phenomenally cheap, as in cheaper than cheap modern hardware.
Personally, my rule is a 10 year gap is old, a 20 year gap is retro.
I use a 2013 Lenovo X1 Carbon with a damaged screen as a plex server thanks to Elementary OS. It would’ve been e-waste years ago in different hands. Frankly it’s a shame people don’t realize how easy it is to boot something like elementary and set up a Plex server. You can be up and running in about 45 minutes and you never have to touch a terminal command.
There are tons of uses for old hardware. You just don’t know them. Pretty much any old computer can be turned into a video game emulation station.
Trade it in to who? Who’s buying PCs that can’t be used? I mean there’s the retro market, but AFAIK they aren’t buying anything after Windows XP.
People who want to boot other things on it than Windows
That’s true, but the supply vastly outstrips the demand. They may make great Linux machines, but the majority of 10-15 year old computers have little to no economic value.
I am running a plex server on a 2013 lenovo booted with elementaryOS. I used a 2009 Mac mini prior. They don’t all need to become e-waste after 10 years, let alone the typical 5 years or so many people throw their stuff out at.
You can also turn basically any old machine into a video game emulation station.
I’m not saying that old hardware is useless. I make good use out of old hardware too. I have an old i5 Dell from about 2012 running ZoneMinder, a Phenom II system from around 2009 that I use a Linux server, an even older Core 2 Duo system that’s a glorified MP3 player, and even a very early 2000’s Pentium III that I use for a router (sadly I’m going to have to retire it from these duties soon - it can barely handle a 100 mbps DSL connection, and it’s too old and outdated to run the modern router distributions).
However, for every one of those computers I have another one like it sitting in a closet plus a few extras. All the geeks and tinkerers I know are also swimming in old hardware. If I really wanted to get rid of this stuff, I’d have a hard time giving it away. Economically, this stuff is worthless. The supply greatly exceeds the demand(*)
(*) well, except maybe the Pentium III… it’s old enough now that retro gamers may be interested…
Of course the supply outstrips the demand, but that was never what this discussion was about.
We make more shit than we need and we don’t reuse as many things as we should.
Why would you want to though? I can understand the retro market because there is software like games that either won’t run very well, or won’t run at all on modern hardware. I’m in the market for a ‘powerful’ machine circa 2003-2005 for that exact reason.
When it comes to machines made in 2015? I’m not sure there’s a lot you can run on those machines that you couldn’t on modern hardware, apart from Windows 11.
I guess you could use them for things like media servers, but it would have to be phenomenally cheap, as in cheaper than cheap modern hardware.
Personally, my rule is a 10 year gap is old, a 20 year gap is retro.
Did you edit your comment?
I use a 2013 Lenovo X1 Carbon with a damaged screen as a plex server thanks to Elementary OS. It would’ve been e-waste years ago in different hands. Frankly it’s a shame people don’t realize how easy it is to boot something like elementary and set up a Plex server. You can be up and running in about 45 minutes and you never have to touch a terminal command.
There are tons of uses for old hardware. You just don’t know them. Pretty much any old computer can be turned into a video game emulation station.
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