The Crappiness of Modern Laptops

brocashelm · 2025-01-31 04:58:36

Nearly all laptops released after 2014 are pretty much pozzed with the planned obsolescence crap sprinkled on top. I got multiple Dell Latitudes sitting here ("latest" one being from 2018), and the ones from 2012 through 2014 are certifiably rock-solid products.

My main two laptops that I take with me on trips are both E6440 models, with three storage devices each (including the WWAN slots where I placed the mini SSDs on as my OS partitions, as well as the optical disc drives being replaced with those inexpensive secondary HDD adapters you can find via eBay and elsewhere), at least six or seven hours of OEM battery life guaranteed, and comfortable enough to type on. Those things just aren't being made anymore, and it annoys me how cheaply plastic and thin those newer Latitudes are. I get that the Haswell CPUs run pretty hot at times, but I got the i7-4712MQ on them running like a charm for the most part.

Interestingly, my Dell Inspiron B130 from 2006 (original owner) still boots up its ancient Pentium M CPU with a single core. Since I know it'd be overkill to upgrade, I keep Devuan Beowulf on it, using the lighter Xfce 4.12 instead of the bloated newer versions that only use GTK3 now. Only thing I need to do is replace the CMOS battery, although my chances of getting a functional OEM battery for that model are slim, so I just keep it plugged in when in use.

Last edited by brocashelm (2025-01-31 06:05:51)

zapper · 2025-02-02 04:09:38

@mtbvfr no idea, i think as much any hardware can be is a good answer. with one caveat, coreboot hardware is similar, but not stock bios. mnt reform stuff is definitely more secure than stock bios uefi on x86.

Oh and I should also add, I might have been wrong, RK3588 is a while away from being liberated on the gpu if nothing else. even if it works without boot blob, there is the ARM MALI still...

ALSO NO mnt reform devices currently work without systemd right now. Unless on OpenBSD or similar.

Last edited by zapper (2025-02-02 04:11:07)

2disbetter · 2025-02-23 20:47:28

I am a community moderator on the Framework Forums. I just recently have become VERY interested in Devuan. I have been running it in a VM for a while now, and have been test driving it on a Framework 13 12th gen Intel i7. On the live image I have been able to get things to work relatively easily.

I too have a MNT Pocket Reform, and while I love it, I am really bummed by how it is ultra dependent on Debian. I used to be a big fan of Debian but their instance to focus on things other than Debian has been real off putting.

That said, I just wanted to report that Devuan 5 seems to be working well out of the box. There are some small things that you need to do, but by an large things are working well.

From a durable laptop angle, i can only highly recommend it. You can repair everything on the laptop and affordably upgrade as new mainboards come out. Framework is really crushing it with how well they are sticking to their principles and continuing to support all of their products.

zapper · 2025-02-24 19:57:33

@2disbetter Hadn't known that, interesting to know that you moderate framework forums. I have seen you on here in the past though, what's different now?

UnixMan1230 · 2025-08-17 22:22:09

Huh, been over a year now since I posted this. Time flies doesn't it?

The T430s I bought is still holding up, actually typing this from it right now. Funny enough, I actually dropped it a few months ago while trying to work on hooking it up to the TV to watch a family member's graduation, and ended up shattering the palmrest. Thank god for SSD's, because I don't think spinning rust would have survived that drop! Thankfully I had another T430s that came with this one as part of a lot on eBay. A couple of hours of transplant work later, it was about as good as new as I was gonna get it. It'll be two years this november since I bought it, and I can truly say I've gotten my money's worth vs. buying one of those budget laptops HP makes. After the last HP machine i bought died, I vowed I'd never touch that god-awful brand again.

Funny enough, I recently went to BestBuy and had a look at some of the newer laptops there. The sheer number of them that have that Copilot bullshit baked in now is just absurd. And Dell has the audacity to sell a snapdragon laptop of *any* kind for $1800? And not even a sturdy one at that? You gotta be shitting me! What stuck out to me the most, though, is that on the front of the store they have a Microsoft Copilot poster that says "Faster than a 5 year old Windows Laptop". Biggest marketing gimmick I've ever seen. Totally not just an excuse to push out new hardware and force replacement, right? Right?

@Chomwitt MNT's are ridiculously expensive, sadly. And underpowered at that.

After this thing finally does bite the dust - probably because I ran out of spare parts - I'll probably replace it with a newer (but still used) Toughbook. I had the privledge to look at one recently and liked what I saw. Its a crying shame, though, when those military grade laptops are the only mass produced option in this day and age that has any kind of proven record. Makes me wish Panasonic actually sold the Lets Note here in the US. I'd use an importer but, y'know, tariffs. And import duties.

stargate-sg1-cheyenne-mtn · 2025-08-18 13:15:24

this is a great commentary on the functioning laptop:

https://imgur.com/gallery/functionable-wsDdXEN

BTDT

been there, done that...ha!

The officially official Devuan Forum!

#26 2025-01-31 04:58:36

Re: The Crappiness of Modern Laptops

#27 2025-02-02 04:09:38

Re: The Crappiness of Modern Laptops

#28 2025-02-23 20:47:28

Re: The Crappiness of Modern Laptops

#29 2025-02-24 19:57:33

Re: The Crappiness of Modern Laptops

#30 2025-08-17 22:22:09

Re: The Crappiness of Modern Laptops

#31 2025-08-18 13:15:24

Re: The Crappiness of Modern Laptops

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