!The quirks of aging laptops --- agk's diary 21 January 2025 @ 13:25 UTC --- written on Pinebook Pro in the living room while the oatmeal cooks before everyone wakes --- This laptop isn't old. It was made in 2020. Peter Guo, who lives in Shanghai and writes to gopher from sdf, wants one in 2025, and laments though made in Shenzhen, it isn't shipped to China. Made in: 2020 Kernel: 6.7.9-1MANJARO-ARM Resolution: 1920x1080 CPU: (6) @ 1.416GHz Memory: 857M/3.74G Sadly, Pinebook announced this month they no longer make Pinebook Pros. They'll focus on their e-ink tablet and look for a new single-board computer to base a laptop around. I don't know if Pine64 decided it's "too old," or some supplier decided a part's "too old," but it's my most modern laptop and there's nothing I need it doesn't do. I know my demands are light, but Evy edited video on it using Kdenlive a few months ago, no problem. I didn't even bother putting a lightweight window- ing system on it. It came with Manjaro. It's fine. It cost $200. When I broke the first one after a year of heavy abuse in nursing school, I got this one. I didn't have time to figure out and fix it. It's what I think laptops should be: lightweight, competent, quiet, inexpensive, good battery life, reasonably private and ergonomic. What's missing is durable. I miss netbooks. The first quirk of my laptops: I don't care if they can suspend or hibernate. Just treat them like they can't. They have two states: on and off. I think I had a problem with the old pinebook's battery draining and then it didn't want to start. The GPD Win 1 definitely has that problem. The GPD Win's fix is obnoxious: unscrew the aging plastic back, unplug the tiny clip connecting the battery to the single board, and plug it back in, then screw the aging backplate back on, trying not to snap off any plastic pieces, strip any threads, or lose any tiny screws. But I love the charming little GPD 1. It's a little clamshell Nintendo DS of a laptop, with clever controls ("bumpers" on the back of the case to click mouse buttons like it was a game controller, joystick mouse, D-pad). It's lightweight and ergo- nomic for my happy wrists. Made in: 2016 OS: Windows 10 Home ver.1803 (end of life) Resolution: 5.5" 1280x720 16:9 CPU: Intel Atom x7-Z8750 @ 1.6GHz Memory: 1.9GB/3.5GB The first obvious thing is Windows is heavier than Manjaro. But sadly no one really ported Linux or BSDs to the Win 1. Its clever controls were too clever to be worth writing drivers for a single device. A friend gave me the Win 1 almost five years ago because it was "too old." I can't tell. I use Sea- monkey internet suite for email and web, which breaks on some websites, I get on SDF with PuTTY. I sometimes take offline notes with zimwiki or do light work in alpine linux via Windows subsystem for Linux (resize pictures with ImageMagick, type- set markdown documents with pandoc and groff). AbiWord is handy for MS Word email attachments. Tiny palmtops are easier if you don't have to mess with the touchpad (or joystick!), so it's good to use programs with predictable keyboard shortcuts. The two worst things about this little guy: taking off the backplate if the battery dies and the crack in the screen when I knocked it on a concrete floor while teaching CPR last month. I'm not using the ThinkPad x61, though it still works, because I loaned the peripherals to Evy for nursing school and it's buried under papers. I have to dig it up to look at the Christmas pictures of our daughter provided to us by her daycare on CD. Made in: 2008 OS: Debian (i3 windowing system) Resolution: 1024x768 CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo Memory: 4GB? I messed up the screen when installing a new one years ago, so there's an annoying little crack in the top right of the display. The keyboard's heaven on earth. It has a fan and is loud. It's more power hungry than the other two laptops. I do actually send it to suspend when it's plugged in, which it usually is, with 'systemctl suspend.' But this little monster just works. It's worked for seventeen years, thirteen of them with me. I bought it for $200 off its first owner when she decided it was "too old." When Evy returns the peripherals, I'm sure I'll keep using it, wishing it was quieter or the coil whine would abate. Because it never actually breaks, I'll never learn to apply thermal paste or something to quiet it down. It's not the best for watching youtube. Otherwise I have no complaints. I usually don't watch youtube on a laptop though. My nursing school gave me an iPad Air (4th generat- ion) with a folio keyboard. I never made an apple account, so I can't install software, but I deleted and turned off most everything I could. It's fine for distractions, scrolling, youtube, and reading downloaded pdf and epub books. Made in: 2020 OS: iPadOS 15.6.1 Resolution: 2360x1640 (10.9") CPU: 2x3.1 GHz and 4x1.82GHz CPU: (6) @ 1.416GHz Memory: 4GB It is distracting. I'm not fond of it in the same way as I am of the three laptops. Its keyboard no longer works, making it even more of a passive consumption device. But it's tough. I'll give it that. I use the Safari browser, the Books app, and the Pictures app (to look at screenshots). I used to get on SDF through the web gateway until the keyboard stopped working. I think when someone has unlimited resources, unlimited power, it's natural to do things inefficiently. I think that's ugly and destructive. The good of off-grid solar (which I don't have) is when it's closely matched to a low level of use. It drives efficient daylight-drive top-loading refrid- geration or root cellars, sleeping when it's dark, decreasing demand when it's cloudy. The laptops and the tablet each have 4GB of RAM. I see people on SDF with 16GB and can't imagine what it's all for! My requirements are humble. I'm not a computer professional. But if I was, why couldn't I compile on a shared cluster, like I currently use SDF? Are all those gigs for games? If I had more CPU, more GPU, or more RAM, maybe I'd know what they're for, but I don't think I want to. I'm afraid it'd be like the iPad, which sometimes hogs my eyes and cheapens the rest of my life. The aging laptops enrich my life, I think.