Personal question: How old is your computer?

[freebeard]

Been too long to recall details.

Apple ][, 1976.

[Xist]

I had finals Monday, Tuesday, and "Friday..." and was supposed to travel to Seattle on Thursday, but I think I was too stressed, and trying to travel to another state and wandering around for 24 hours since I had a nap seemed statistically unlikely to succeed.
I pulled the hard drives from my desktop and laptop and transferred my personal files.
I just wanted to copy the files I made in the 3 weeks I used the thus-far-uninspiring thing, which I wanted to call a moon-faced assassin of joy, but I have been wavering between one more minor inconvenience I am exchanging it for a better computer and installing win 10 on a new SSD and seeing if that works--and the screen stops going black momentarily.
So there I was, minding my own business, and I couldn't open or write files.
I planned on resetting Windows as soon as I backed up my files.
When I couldn't do that, I tried creating a Linux boot drive, but I didn't feel like I was getting anywhere with that, so I gave up, and reset Windows.
Somehow I had thought Mom’s laptop is 6 years old, although I don’t see where I claimed that.
Maybe Imgur, but I am not going back and looking!
I just wanted to see how much RAM it has and I saw that I bought it on 02/03/2020, so 4.75 years?
Four GB, by the way.
It normally works fine, but right now I have 6 browser windows open, and I connected it to my 4k TV to submit my clinical hours.
I also needed to submit something Monday night, but I keep forgetting I can do that in Google.
I went crazy and opened all kinds of tabs on Mom’s computer, which bogged down, so instead of trying to fix my laptop, I went through all of those tabs.
For some bizarre reason, my school uses Gmail, but a Microsoft authenticator. Each time I tried to log into my Google account, it tried to log into my school account.
Each time I tried to figure out how to fix this, I kept reading “Just reach out to Google support!”
“I can’t log in!”
I finally logged into my school account and switched to my personal account.
By the way, I haven’t received Ecomodder notifications for several months.
I really hope my account keeps working!
I always think it is bizarre when Amazon says “People who bought this laptop also bought these!”
Really?
People buy four different laptops at the same time?
That sounds like a nightmare!
I found my Samsung 990 Pro SSD.
I can install Win10 on it and see if the computer finally works right.
This is the newest win10 computer I found on NewEgg: https://www.newegg.com/p/1VK-0001-6J3M5

The win10 computers I found on Amazon were as old as mine or older!
It worked, though, just wore out.
This HP has the same processor as the two Dells I bought, 32 GB RAM like the first one, but a 512 GB SSD and a 1 TB 7,200RPM HD
It only has on-board graphics and I can’t find out how many expansion slots it may have or the power supply: https://www.costco.com/hp-envy-deskt...000252487.html

I have so many things to do! I can’t spend all of my time trying to fix computers and failing!

[Piotrsko]

Depending on how you define computer, many households had hidden, embedded control devices, but generally weren't internet connected. Fire alarm systems come to top of mind, they could call the office or set off a light board at the local fire dept.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

Depending on how you define computer, many households had hidden, embedded control devices, but generally weren't internet connected. Fire alarm systems come to top of mind, they could call the office or set off a light board at the local fire dept.

That's why I've been using the term 'personal computer'. That excludes devices you don't interact with, or only in a limited way due to it being an appliance, regardless of internet connectivity.

[freebeard]

Originally Posted by Xist

which I wanted to call a moon-faced assassin of joy

Have you considered becoming a poet?

[vteco]

I run Puppy Linux.

My last laptop, according to the label was built in 2012. Under PL it will do video editing with video monitor in real time. The version is BionicPUP, and it has a standard old HD of 1TB. I replaced the old CeleronM proc about 4 years ago with a used I5 for like 25 bucks off of Ebay. I've replaced the keyboard twice, and the batt 3 times. It still works great, though it's ugly as hell. It will dual boot into Win7 (never online) for a couple of occasional weirdo programs. But 99% of the time it was on BionicPup 64 ( a version of Puppy Linux).

Puppy Linux loads into RAM, including all applications, so is very fast. Mine runs WINE, so it can also run many Windows programs natively.

My nephew seeing this old beat-up tank of a laptop surprised me with a new one last year as a gift!

It's an HP ENVY Laptop 17t-cr100 running an I5-13500H 12 core proc and 1TB Nvme drive. Beautiful 17" screen with 100% sRGB gamut, which I love for video editing and photo work.

Again I installed a flavor of Puppy Linux, F96-CE. I can dual boot into Win11 (which I've had no need to yet). I do have Win 7 aboard the Linux side when occasionally needed, running in a Qemu virtual machine. The virtual machine runs faster than Win 7 did natively when it first came out on my 2012 laptop.

Before 2012 I ran Puppy linux in an IBM Thinkpad TP600e laptop for about ten years. It also had a proc upgrade eventually.

So, three HEAVILY used laptops in over twenty years. Hope the current one is as rugged as the last two.

[Xist]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Have you considered becoming a poet?

It is a "Babylon 5" quote.

[freebeard]

So, three HEAVILY used laptops in over twenty years. Hope the current one is as rugged as the last two.

My 128K Macintosh was running strong, with a Sony video frame grabber, after nine years when it was stolen.

Performance wise, the new RP 5 is twice as everything compared with the predecessor RP 4. Even two DVI [webcam] inputs.

I still have a Mac TV that was $250 [used] around the turn of the Century. I should get it out and see if it boots.

[redpoint5]

I consider twice as good as a minimum criteria to upgrade. I'm a product of Moore's Law.

[freebeard]

I exaggerate of course. It still has four USB and two HDMI ports.

However, Raspberry have release a 7" touch screen that uses a DVI port (so you can retain 2 screens) and an AI hat:

Buy a Raspberry Pi AI HAT+ - Raspberry Pi
The Raspberry Pi AI HAT+ features a built-in neural network accelerator, turning your Raspberry Pi 5 into a high-performance, accessible, and power-efficient AI machine.. Available with 13 or 26 TOPS performance, it's suited to everything from entry-level applications to more complex neural processing,