On 03/20/2014 06:48 PM Craig L. wrote:
On Thu, Mar 20, 2014 at 04:03:36PM -0400, Mike McGinn wrote:On Thursday, March 20, 2014 15:28:32 Craig L. wrote:Hello list, Sadly, my 11 year-old Toshiba laptop has become physically unusable*, and I will be receiving a new laptop at work. We are looking at the Dell E7440, and my initial look tells me I will be getting something that should run a pure Debian main installation, but I figured I would ask to be safe. Thanks, Craig *Hinges broken beyond repair. 11 years old with just 512MB of RAM, but still running Wheezy with an XFCE desktop just fine! Case is cracked, battery lasts about ten minutes, touchpad is dead, and the screen has several scuffs. Still, it is a shame to see it go.When the hinges went on my Toshiba I was able to attach a small piece of metal to the back to hold the screen up. Got another two years out of it.Thanks Mike. Unfortunately this laptop is now a two-piece system, if you know what I mean, and it is just more trouble than it is worth to repair. Time to move on. *sigh*Mike
I'm where you are, currently using a decades-old Dell Latitude with a couple cracks in it and a non-working screen. It's plugged into an old CRT monitor. Although, like yours, the battery lasts maybe fifteen minutes, it's still good for when the power goes off momentarily-- which happens four or five times a year. There's enough cash in my checking to buy a new laptop, but I just haven't gotten around to it.
It's not going in the trash though. It's still good for a headless linux box. Long ago I buffed it up with a big HD and 2G of RAM, the cat5 and 802.11bg wifi still work, as do the two USB ports, DVD r/w. I figure it would still be useful as a print- and scanner server... and/or music server (the sound card is still fine), a sandbox machine, and possibly for some other things. I might spray-paint it, frame it, and hang it on the wall so it looks like art... even as it continues to serve useful purposes. I'd love it if this old piece of crap didn't make it into the landfill until after I do... maybe even *long* after.
Linux will never die. It just gets perpetually revised.