I’m sitting here in 2026 runnin Fedora 43 on a laptop from 2016, and honestly? It’s smoother than it has any right to be. My entire workflow lives in Brave and Obsidian, and this “old” i5 handles it like a champ. There is something deeply satisfying about taking a “boring” enterprise machine, slapping GNOME on it, and watching it run circles around modern hardware,It’s actually fuckin depressing that a 10-year-old laptop has better utility than 99% of the “pro” hardware being sold today.have a native Ethernet port and a full SD slot. Imagine that shit No $60 Amazon adapters dangling off the side like life support just to get a stable connection 🙄that’s what I call good hardware built to last.#r/Linuxmasterrace

  • AndrewZabar@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    6 days ago

    Aside from one desktop that still has Win 7 Pro on it for various reasons, and is almost entirely an internal server, every single system I use is Linux. Has been this way for at least a decade. My current laptop came with Winblows 11 but I booted first time straight into a Kubuntu flash drive to install it. Never even had to see that ugly ass Winblows.

    I’ve got something running Pop, one running Debian, one has Elementary, I’ve got one with Bodhi, another with KDE Neon, one with Q4, and a variety of others.

    Fuck Winblows the OS that is one giant virus.

    Edit: oooh forgot my little guy running Kali. And also the dozen distros running in VMs on the Windows desktop.

  • Left as Center@jlai.lu
    0·
    7 days ago

    Oldest computer just hit 20, running MX for writing and casual web use. It’s about as slow as a 4 years old company laptop with windows.

  • VoxBunn@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    0·
    7 days ago

    I’m running Nobara on a 2015 MacBook Pro, nice that this laptop I bought over a decade ago is still a perfectly good machine. The display, trackpad, keyboard and aluminum chassis are still stop notch and the processor and ram handle my casual computer usage just fine. Wild to think how many perfectly good computers are just going to waste because Apple and Microsoft gave up on them.

  • dihutenosa@piefed.socialEnglish
    0·
    7 days ago

    My employer offered to upgrade my many-years-old Thinkpad to a newer one, but it just did not stick (WiFi drivers in Linux were unstable). I returned it and kept using the old one. Why change what works.

  • devtoolkit_api@discuss.tchncs.deBanned
    0·
    8 days ago

    Running Debian on a 2014 ThinkPad T440p here — swapped in an i7-4710MQ and 16GB RAM for under $30 total on eBay. Compiles code, runs containers, handles everything I throw at it.

    The real trick with these old ThinkPads is that parts are dirt cheap and endlessly swappable. Battery dying? $15 replacement. Screen too dim? Swap in an IPS panel for $25. Try doing that with anything made after 2020.

    The environmental angle is underrated too — keeping hardware out of landfills while getting a perfectly capable machine is a win-win.

    • S1L3NT_F0X404@lemmy.mlOP
      0·
      7 days ago

      ​"I’ve been eyeing NixOS, but I’ll admit I’m struggling. The way the package manager works is a bit of a headache. How has your experience been with it so far?"

      • BastingChemina@slrpnk.net
        0·
        7 days ago

        Moving to NixOS was quite a challenge for me. It felt like a Iot of different concepts that it took a while to understand.

        I’m glad I pushed through because I take like it now. Now that I have my config everything is easy and straightforward.

      • FG_3479@lemmy.world
        0·
        7 days ago

        I would skip it if that is an issue. I think Bazzite with a few Gnome extensions (Dash to Panel, Arc Menu, and GTK 4 Desktop Icons NG) is the best for beginners. It just works.

  • HugeNerd@lemmy.ca
    0·
    7 days ago

    Well my 25$ Value Village SFF PC works well after about 100$ of upgrades, including a i7 and 32GB of RAM (bought last year)…

  • HubertManne@piefed.socialEnglish
    0·
    8 days ago

    my common suggestion for people looking to switch is throw linux on your last laptop if its in working condition and see how well it runs vs your newer one with windows.

    • curbstickle@anarchist.nexusEnglish
      0·
      7 days ago

      My favorite solution is to take my laptop from work being decommissioned, drop Linux on it, and have it last for years to come.

      My wife is using my laptop from ~9 years ago. I’m using my work laptop from ~5 years ago, and my current work laptop is about to get decommissioned. My oldest will probably get the one my wife is using.

      They all work great.

    • floofloof@lemmy.ca
      0·
      8 days ago

      I just stuck a new battery in my laptop for its 9th birthday. Still going strong with OpenSUSE Tumbleweed.

  • morto@piefed.socialEnglish
    0·
    8 days ago

    People talk a lot about software enshittification, but hardware enshittification is also a thing!

        • balsoft@lemmy.ml
          0·
          7 days ago

          I mean, it is some carbrain propaganda that aligned with the government-approved destruction of walkable cities and public transit. Soo it is kind to a hymn to enshittification in its own way.

  • Luke@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    8 days ago

    My 2013 Dell XPS laptop is still running beautifully with Fedora 43 too! Honestly, it’s amazing how much life a piece of old hardware can have with Linux running on it.

  • Dariusmiles2123@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    8 days ago

    We need to keep old hardware alive and avoid e-waste when possible. What is your computer?

    My wife’s upgraded 2012 MacBook Pro is no cknamed the beast as it’s so snappy running Fedora Workstation.

  • Carl [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    0·
    7 days ago

    hel yea my thinkpad t480 is a little younger than that but it’s top tier, had to reimage a bunch of windows laptops today and got reminded just how slooooooooooooow corporate hardware can be i can’t believe people work with that and just accept it as the way that computers are