Are you suggesting that the number should be higher or lower?
As someone who still has functional PC hardware from the 90's, calling 6.5 "a few years" sounds about right...
As someone who still has functional PC hardware from the 90's, calling 6.5 "a few years" sounds about right...
Chromebooks are designed to preserve data. The hardware is presumed vulnerable to failure.
They are basically modern version of a dumb/dumbed down network terminal. Chromebook experience is tailored for doing everything in the browser.
For fsck's sake you have to print through the "cloud": https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/how-to-set-up-google-prin...
You have to trust that Google will preserve your data in its cloud.
This is much better than getting an elderly relative off Windows XP.
There are several companies currently making new (more stable, more reliable) power supplies for C-64's.
And you still can, you just won't be getting updates. Just like Apple IIs and C64s from decades ago don't get any updates.
It's not like 6.5 years after release it just immediately refuses to power on anymore, it still works
You can "update" a C64 long after its manufacturer is gone, but these devices are literally designed to lock you out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar9WRwCiSr0
Old hardware can often be repaired. If you told a C64 user back in the day his machine would break in two years, he or she wouldn't shell out the $$ on it, but today people buy $400~$800 cellphones that turn into garbage.
I wouldn't put money on that. A C64's starting price was $600 in 1982 dollars. For $154 in 1982, quite a few people might have been willing.
Unsurprisingly, there's even a few hacks out there for upgrading old C64s with newer/better components, too, if you want to get another couple decades out of it. There's even new manufacture C64-compatible enthusiast boards being produced [1], although I believe you may have to supply your own SID chip. The latter doesn't count much for this topic, but it illustrates there's some interest. Further, the parts that are likely to break over time are fairly trivial for someone with soldering skills to replace. I know of at least a couple people who preemptively replaced capacitors on old C64s they bought and refurbished.
[1] https://icomp.de/shop-icomp/en/produkt-details/product/c64-r...
That was pretty much expected. Hardware upgrades were just as fast and furious as they are now, if not moreso. Backwards compatibility with years-old systems at the consumer level was a byproduct, not a plan.
Is 6.5 a magic perfect number? No, I'd like to see more like 10 years honestly (which matches what Microsoft supports with Windows). But let's at least use the actual numbers and not easily confused vague terms like "few"