[Homunculiheaded]

Not long about I accidentally ruined the keyboard on my oldish white macbook, I debated spending cash I really didn't need to spend on a nice new macbook air. But after giving it some good thought I decided to just go ahead and replace the topcase myself.

While deciding this I realized it's rather a shame that in our hacker culture there's still somewhat of a fetishism for having a sleek new laptop, and that it would be much better if the culture valued the patched together, upgraded and heavily worn.

There are many great reasons for this: cut down on consumer waste, more in-tune with the hacker ideal to squeeze the most out of what you have in front of you, interesting performances issues aren't solved with a simple hardware upgrade, and of course Zed's point that we remain more in-touch with what actual users are using.

It shouldn't a point of shame to have the latest and the greatest, but it would be nice more cred went to the hacker in the room with the oldest, most beatup, but still productive laptop

[mnutt]

Don't replace it if it works for you, but due to Moore's Law computer hardware doesn't age that well. Older guitars that are well taken care of sound as good if not better than shiny new ones, but after a certain age your computer begins wasting your time.

Most programming time is spent sitting and thinking, but when I act I want the computer to respond as quickly as possible, whether compiling or running tests or opening a website.

That's not to say I don't share the sentiment about computers becoming less hackable and more consumer toys. It's a shame that laptops these days have almost zero user-servicable parts.

[pygy_]

Macs are actually remarkably serviceable, thanks to their limited product range, and iFixit.

My only computer is a tweaked 5 years old MacBook Pro, underclocked to 1 GHz for stability reasons. I've replaced the optical drive with a big hard disk, and the primary hard disk with an SDD. Stock 2GB of RAM.

Except for CPU-bound tasks (mostly HD videos, and the ocasional ./configure && make && sudo make install), it flies.

[gtani]

The earliest MBP's probably need that heat paste thing redone, but 2008 and later Core Duo 2 MBP generally last as long as you don't flex the logic board (don't carry it by one corner), and keep it reasonably cool. One of hte older generation MBP had clips for logicboard that were ver fragile.

For linux, the US$7-800 core i5 toshibas and HP laptops at Costco work pretty well, except for wifi on the Realtek chip set. 8M RAM vs. 2M on a 5-year old laptop is a big diff.

[keithpeter]

"For linux, the US$7-800 core i5 toshibas and HP laptops at Costco work pretty well, except for wifi on the Realtek chip set."

Keyboards: Lenovo E350 (AMD) and Dell dell XPS L502X were ok in the shop, but the rest flexed badly when I typed.

[gtani]

Uh, that's gig of RAM. Heh

[cheald]

My workstation started life as an HP I bought at Best Buy in 1998. I've just upgraded it piecemeal over the years, and while none of the original hardware remains, I've never replaced it outright.

My two development boxes, also under my desk, are whiteboxes cobbled together from previous iterations of my workstation - the hardware gets handed down, and once it hits four generations old, it gets shelved in the garage. Those pieces occassionally get used to patch friends' computers. I've quadrupled RAM with old unused DIMMs for more people than I care to think about

If that isn't patched together, upgraded, and heavily worn, I don't know what is!

[davidw]

That sort of thing makes a great deal of sense with a "desktop" computer. Laptops are not designed to work like that, and in most cases are not robust enough in any event.

[sigh400]

I am guilty as much as anyone of riding my hardware pretty hard and for far too long but you're just moving into silly mode. Case entry alone would make a prudent upgrade.

[cheald]

What do you mean by case entry? I've replaced the case on my primary workstation twice; literally none of the original machine remains now. The current case is a nice big zero-tool-entry type with six drive bays and room for usually-large hardware like CPU coolers and video cards. I think I ended up selling the original case on eBay.

I don't do it out of some "hacker ideal" - I do it because it's cost-effective, and because I get a lot of pleasure out of building my own rigs. It just so happens that that ends up leaving me with machines that are patched together, well-worn, and well-loved.

[zedshaw]

That's pretty much the point. I'm more about the results I get with the tech than what brand or style the tech is in. Since my software is used by people, I have to try to use what they have but maybe a bit better so I don't waste time.

One thing I didn't mention in that article, since it's not the point of the article, is I really only buy computer equipment when there's a real time/money advantage involved. It's not about "junk machines == bad ass hacker dude". It's more that they're just tools for me and I don't fetishize them.

Now, guitar stuff. That's a whole other bag of fetish fun for me. :-)

[soapdog]

I agree with you. That is one of the reasons I kept using my Newton 2000 until last year when it broke because someone accidentally sat on it and cracked the screen.

There are lots of "old" or "outdated" technology out there than can get the job done well. I don't see the need for always keeping up buying more and more stuff as if computers were disposable.