That’s true, but the supply vastly outstrips the demand. They may make great Linux machines, but the majority of 10-15 year old computers have little to no economic value.
I am running a plex server on a 2013 lenovo booted with elementaryOS. I used a 2009 Mac mini prior. They don’t all need to become e-waste after 10 years, let alone the typical 5 years or so many people throw their stuff out at.
You can also turn basically any old machine into a video game emulation station.
Why would you want to though? I can understand the retro market because there is software like games that either won’t run very well, or won’t run at all on modern hardware. I’m in the market for a ‘powerful’ machine circa 2003-2005 for that exact reason.
When it comes to machines made in 2015? I’m not sure there’s a lot you can run on those machines that you couldn’t on modern hardware, apart from Windows 11.
I guess you could use them for things like media servers, but it would have to be phenomenally cheap, as in cheaper than cheap modern hardware.
Personally, my rule is a 10 year gap is old, a 20 year gap is retro.
I use a 2013 Lenovo X1 Carbon with a damaged screen as a plex server thanks to Elementary OS. It would’ve been e-waste years ago in different hands. Frankly it’s a shame people don’t realize how easy it is to boot something like elementary and set up a Plex server. You can be up and running in about 45 minutes and you never have to touch a terminal command.
There are tons of uses for old hardware. You just don’t know them. Pretty much any old computer can be turned into a video game emulation station.
Trade it in to who? Who’s buying PCs that can’t be used? I mean there’s the retro market, but AFAIK they aren’t buying anything after Windows XP.
People who want to boot other things on it than Windows
That’s true, but the supply vastly outstrips the demand. They may make great Linux machines, but the majority of 10-15 year old computers have little to no economic value.
I am running a plex server on a 2013 lenovo booted with elementaryOS. I used a 2009 Mac mini prior. They don’t all need to become e-waste after 10 years, let alone the typical 5 years or so many people throw their stuff out at.
You can also turn basically any old machine into a video game emulation station.
Why would you want to though? I can understand the retro market because there is software like games that either won’t run very well, or won’t run at all on modern hardware. I’m in the market for a ‘powerful’ machine circa 2003-2005 for that exact reason.
When it comes to machines made in 2015? I’m not sure there’s a lot you can run on those machines that you couldn’t on modern hardware, apart from Windows 11.
I guess you could use them for things like media servers, but it would have to be phenomenally cheap, as in cheaper than cheap modern hardware.
Personally, my rule is a 10 year gap is old, a 20 year gap is retro.
Did you edit your comment?
I use a 2013 Lenovo X1 Carbon with a damaged screen as a plex server thanks to Elementary OS. It would’ve been e-waste years ago in different hands. Frankly it’s a shame people don’t realize how easy it is to boot something like elementary and set up a Plex server. You can be up and running in about 45 minutes and you never have to touch a terminal command.
There are tons of uses for old hardware. You just don’t know them. Pretty much any old computer can be turned into a video game emulation station.
People who know that the computers can still be used.