Poll: How Long Do You Keep a PC/Mac These Days?

[donheff]

Fun redirect. My first was an Osborne 1 in 1981 (wow, 30 years!). My Dad started with a TRS-80. How far we've all come...

Wow, memory Lane Midpack. I had that same dual drive, CPM Osborne as my first work computer in about 82. I used it to create a disciplinary actions database. If I remember, they called it a "lugable"

 

[Midpack]

Wow, memory Lane Midpack. I had that same dual drive, CPM Osborne as my first work computer in about 82. I used it to create a disciplinary actions database. If I remember, they called it a "lugable"

It was portable, I was part of an Osborne users group that met weekly, we all brought our computers to each session. There were 20-30 of us geeks...

 

[Chuckanut]

I have a problem with the poll since it asks about one's 'newest or primary PC". Which is it? My primary PC had just passed the 3 year mark. My newest PC which has a very specialized use is less than a year old.
In any event, I figured out a long time ago that buying a mid level PC is the best deal. Buy, very low and I am replacing the PC in only about two years. Buy, to high and my super-duper PC is outclassed in a year by a mid-level PC at 1/2 the price. I replace my PC when it not longer functions in a useful way for me. That seems to be at about four years. LIke my cars, I tend to use them until they are an embarrassment!!

 

[cocobird]

Admittedly, I am a "late" adopter of technology and my laptop is 4 years old. My DH, however, has an incredible collection of computers including the Timex Sinclair he put together and a Commodore 64. He also used the TRS 80 at his semi-conductor job (they called it the Trash 80 back then) and the Osborne. He still operates on a Dell laptop with Unix software on a disk. We still use a dot matrix printer too.

 

[Midpack]

I have a problem with the poll since it asks about one's 'newest or primary PC". Which is it? My primary PC had just passed the 3 year mark. My newest PC which has a very specialized use is less than a year old.

As I stated in post #27, my poll construction was not well thought out, sorry. I was really after what's the interval between new PC's lately, and commenting that I thought it could be signficantly longer for most people these days where performance isn't the driver it once was with everything moving to the internet and/or cloud vs ever more demanding software driving ever more CPU speed and HD/RAM capacity.

 

[GrayHare]

Printers I keep using until they die. My original IBM Proprinter lasted over 20 years, and when it gave out I obtained another from a thrift store for $5. My HP LaserJet is now over 20 years old, and thousands of pages later is still going. All part of LBYM.

 

[donheff]

Wow, memory Lane Midpack. I had that same dual drive, CPM Osborne as my first work computer in about 82. I used it to create a disciplinary actions database. If I remember, they called it a "lugable"

It was portable, I was part of an Osborne users group that met weekly, we all brought our computers to each session. There were 20-30 of us geeks...

I wasn't a geek (at least not a technical geek). We had a competition - regular workers wrote a proposal on what they would do with a micro-computer. The 20 top reviewed proposals won. The computers were a mix mash of devices. I got one of two Osbornes. Had real floppies in those drives. Fifteen years later when I moved over from HR to IT a couple of the people running that original program came to work for me.

 

[easysurfer]

Here we go: Old Computers - rare, vintage, and obsolete computers

Brings back good (and bad) memories of computers past.

 

[kcowan]

Paid $600 for an HP Pavilion that was selling for $1200 new. It was 6 months old and the kid wanted to buy an iMac. Still works great (augmented by WD Passport drives): 2GB RAM 160 GB disk, XP.

What holds me back is installing all the sofware again.