Since 2013, I have used a laptop made in 2009 as my normal, everyday laptop. I am currently in the process of replacing it, but only because other people have complained about the fan noise.
Same I've got a Thinkpad R61i from around the same time that originally came with a Pentium dual core and 2GB of ram.
It's been fully upgraded with an SSD, the fastest core2duo I could find, and more memory. With a fresh battery it still manages to be a great machine all these years later.
If that works for you pls buy a second hand MacBook m1 or M2 air (air has worse design but some silicon bugs are ironed out around vms etc) and run it for Linux. It is silent very powerful and you will use for a very long time. Very non repairable tho :(
> you will use for a very long time. Very non repairable tho
This seems moderately contradictory, because as the time that you use something increases the chance of some physical damage increases, especially for a portable device where dropping, an imperfect bag holding, or someone else bumping it, and the like, are all more likely than a stationary device (like a desktop).
This is a huge reason that I don't use many Apple devices, so if they somehow effectively addressed this without reparability, I'd be interested to know. However, I suspect that that's impossible because just making it durable only delays the need to repair, so you end up up shit creek maybe 2 years after buying it instead of 1 year (made up numbers).
Some of us just don't do that sort of thing. When I took my five year old iPhone 7 in for a battery replacement the person serving me commented on the good condition. This was a phone I used daily without a case.
the storage will eventually fail and you will be able to do nothing about it (unless you have some pretty good rework chops). I do not recommend apple laptops (with soldered storage) for very long term applications like this for this reason alone.
A slight tangent but BGA rework is pretty easy to learn, and I recommend doing so. I find it an invaluable skill for upgrading/repairing/hacking modern hardware.
Yeah I need to learn it. I have learned to do some surface mount work but working on a hobby board that might cost me a hundred bucks to replace if i fuck it up vs a modern mac motherboard.. different tier of terror ;)
Insane. Can I ask how you live like this? Is it a income issue or a statement?
I'm from a developing country and I had a 2010 dual core Celeron notebook with 4GB DDR3 and I found it unusable in 2016-2018. Can't imagine still having to use that today. Especially for browsing the web today.
It's been fully upgraded with an SSD, the fastest core2duo I could find, and more memory. With a fresh battery it still manages to be a great machine all these years later.