Ask HN: How many of you are consciously downsizing your devices/going retro? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How many of you are consciously downsizing your devices/going retro?

112 pointsFerretFred230 comments

Although Sales and Marketing would have us believe that we should upgrade our devices on a regular basis, a growing number of us are pushing back and consciously not buying new and many cases going retro and using older machines with a modern OS. I eschewed desktops in favour of laptops and now I've progressed to an iPad Mini 6 and a 2018 Android Tablet with Termux and Debian 12 (non-GUI). How about you?

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I have zero TVs, IoT devices, home automatons, etc. I generally dislike anything that beeps and anything with LEDs. Though I built my own house, I don't even own a microwave. The stove is gas. I like candles. In winter we heat with firewood. Though I have ornamental gardens (that I am expanding to a garden of 100 roses), and an orchard, I have no watering lines timers. I water everything by walking around and pointing at it with the hose.

for what are called computers:

1 desktop - a 2021 box that I built (this replaced a 2013 box)

1 laptop, 1 phone (a pixel 7), 1 camera (Leica Q2) (well and a Praktica MTL5 made in East Germany)

And one kindle. And an iPad, for work testing.

I'm a web developer. I love technology. I think what you have should be as good as you can make it for yourself. But it has to feel and serve very human purposes to be worthwhile. I don't think many gadgets do that. Many devices, especially modern ones, take the liberty of interrupting you often. I do not wish to be interrupted.

> I do not wish to be interrupted.

Don't you have to interrupt yourself to remember to water the garden?

i think he meant to be intwrrupted with technology.

Interrupting yourself is just individual agency. Nothing like being interrupted by an external device.

No. Watering the garden doesn't have to be done at an exact time. It can wait til the end of some other task. It can wait til tomorrow. Hell, depending on where you live it can wait a week.

Hey I just wanted to thank you, your comment reminded me to plug in my car (which, like watering, doesn't have to be done at a certain time but does have to happen before bed).

If I hadn't plugged it in my wife would have been stranded tomorrow after she got where she was going.

Hooray I helped on accident!(by which I mean: you're welcome :D)

Glad she didn't get stranded.

Be careful with the firewood, there may be a link between lung cancer and fireplaces https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37542784/

Also gas stoves

Looks like you’re right https://www.npr.org/2023/06/16/1181299405/gas-stoves-pollute...

Come to the induction side, it's amazing and eventually just normal. I truly love our cooktop and am sad using anything else. I no longer need a slow cooker, I can keep a steady simmer for days, and nothing gets a faster boil.

And advice how to stop the buzzing?

On my induction range, the buzzing only happens when I’m pumping 40 amps through a pot and its contents. The range boils water so quickly that I don’t find it annoying. Ymmv

I have experienced varying levels of buzzing that can sometimes be reduced by centering the cookware better but it had been minor, doesn't bother me, and I believe it's part of normal operation.

You may as well ask how to stop the gas stove clicking on ignition or the extraction fan from droning. Cooking makes sound.

Any particular devices you recommend? I'm not quite sure of what you're referring to with induction, or how it works well as a slow cooker? Honestly curious.

See Wikipedia for a bit more detail[0] but induction cooktops use a magnet to directly heat your cookware. They can heat faster and more exactly while remaining more consistent over time. They are safer because the cooktop surface is not heated and is often actively cooled but also because they can detect the pan being removed or not really being on the burner and disable themselves after a bit. The magnet gives far greater control over the results for better range. With electric coils and gas, I rarely had the consistency or stability of the high/low temperature that is trivial on my induction stove which allows me to use it the same way I use use a slow cooker. You may need new cookware since it'll need to be magnetic/ferrous.

I've had a few issues with the Samsung we bought (not nearly as many as the other Samsung appliances we bought at the same time. So I wouldn't necessarily suggest that brand specifically and I don't remember the brand names I used in the UK before returning to the US.

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induction_cooking

Thanks for the tips!. As for Samsung, agreed. I avoid it for appliances. A relative of mine has a Samsung refrigerator and a large Samsung oven. The fridge has done relatively okay (but far from what its price justifies), but the oven has been a shit show from day one.

To be honest, the handful of years you might live longer is not worth the cost of not being able to enjoy a wood fire.

I'd take a few extra years with my family over a wood fire tbh. Very few things are worth years of your life when they have safe replacements.

Not sure if you've tried it, but central heating doesn't really interrupt you too much. ++ Would recommend over firewood (assuming you're actually on a grid)

Heating by gas is 6 times more expensive than heating by wood here.

This is hilarious. I got halfway through this and thought “this sounds like Simon Sarris” then looked at the id.

I'm finding software bloat to be the biggest prohibiting factor. I'm continually astonished by how much worse each update brings. Even Linux will not stop bloating.

It used to be that one could surf the Internet with a graphical user-interface using a 100 mhz cpu with 16 megabytes (not gigabytes) of memory.

That same machine would be fairly snappy for checking email, writing documents and programming. It would even run 3D games, and with an accelerator card at 24 mhz, it would run them fairly smoothly too.

For everyday use, I think the most retro I'm having some limited success using is not very retro, it's an imac running osx 10.6.8, a very capable machine, but still, no match for the bloat of modern websites. (HN excluded, that, and many of the articles it links too work well enouhg).

Sometimes I catch myself daydreaming about a world where we just threw all existing software/hardware into a volcano and started from a clean slate. Imagine RISC-V based PCs/laptops with properly replaceable/repairable parts and the OS (from core utils to the kernel) written in a functional JIT compiled language... I miss the days when tech was built with poking around in mind.

In my dream it's a nice MicroVax or 68000 series CPU with at least 16 registers and a built in floating point unit. Not a Z80 or 8088 derivative.

> consciously not buying new and ... using older machines with a modern OS.

Part of tech's maturity is devices lasting longer: We replace them because they (almost) wear out, instead of getting outdated.

When I was 9 my family bought a fancy 27" tube TV. We had it for 15 years until it was replaced by a flat screen. When my dad got rid of the tube TV, he told me it was the longest a TV ever lasted him.

In general, I try to keep my phones and computers until they break. Then I buy the best I can afford. I don't replace things just because there is a newer model: I like using my things, not constantly re-setting them up. I also prefer spending my money on other things.

Part of tech's maturity is devices lasting (longly) as long as it maximizes profits

They last so long now. I remember having the early Android tablets and after 2 years they worked like absolute crap and were no longer supported with updates. Now ipads seem to last 8 years at least.

iPads have always lasted a long time. I have one I use in the gym for over a decade.

I'm less focused on downsizing, and more on avoiding unnecessary churn driven by (popularly assumed) design or (Hanlon's Razor and my assumption) incompetence.

I managed to keep an android smartphone going for almost 10 years. At less than two years the Google Play Store would devour the entire battery in 9 hours, so I deleted it, and battery life rebounded to 5-6 days with normal use. Better than new.

Other android system apps began to unobservably consume obvious quantites of data with telemetry, so I installed netguard to identify them. Once those apps were identified I deleted everything I could without breaking the phone, and battery life rebounded to 4 days after six years of use.

The local police recently acquired a secondhand stingray and circle varying parts of the county with it cranked up to maximum acquisition and retention, for reasons perhaps related to unfamiliarity with the concepts of discretion and nuance and subtlety. Newer phones don't care, they switch to bands that old stingray has never heard of. My old phone couldn't, and calls simply wouldn't connect in or out when a certain Cessna was overhead (verified tens of times on ADSB). Clumsy dragnet surveillance on top of reduced service in legacy 4G bands broke my old phone. It outlived the world it depended on.

So I repaired a secondhand, rather less old, broken android phone, and now I'm trying out LineageOS. We'll see how far this one goes. It seems like a lot of effort and specialized knowledge to keep a smartphone usefully functioning longer than a goldfish. It's frustrating. I'm not downsizing, I'm avoiding the accumulation of things I have to figure out how to hack for maintenance instead of for fun.

I've rediscovered how wonderfully usable AmigaDOS is, and had some fun exploring real world usability in 2023 and now 2024.

An Amiga 3000 with the original 25 MHz m68030 / m68882 is barely functional, but I can ssh with it, I can load modern SSL sites, I can write, print, et cetera.

An Amiga with an accelerator and m68060 is comfortable, and it actually snappier than most modern Windows systems.

An Amiga with a PiStorm makes modern computers feel sluggish and drowsy. It's not easy to explain, but there's an immediate response to practically everything that's not from a floppy (although it's amazing how quickly things load) and isn't loading over the Internet (can't help the speed of light).

The more I play with these systems, the less I want to run a modern GUI OS. Give me the AmigaDOS GUI on a NetBSD machine, and I'll consider using a new machine.

Reading this made me (very) sorely miss my A1200, which I used as my daily driver all the way up to 2003. I was shocked at how much difference in speed a 4MB Fast RAM expansion and 68881 FPU made.

You might like Photon of Scoopex's Amiga Hardware Programming tutorial[1], in which he creates an Amiga Demo using assembly from scratch in ASMOne/ASMTwo

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p83QUZ1-P10&list=PLtjBEWQ66x...

Input latency is famously short on an Apple IIe. Something like 5ms from key to screen. That is far, far faster than modern computers.

I'm interested in "new architecture, retro capability" myself, so devices like MiSTer or Agon Light have interested me lately, although I haven't jumped over to getting one. Along the same lines, I decided that I would just run my entire dev environments(including the editors) in VMs or emulators, and even though that's slower, it greatly clears up the distinction between the dev workspace and the desktop.

I've also become a little warmer to terminal apps since they seem to be rather timeless; my Android phone now uses Termux with yt-dlp and cmus when I want to download and play back portable music, and this is both a grossly mismatched UX and also a very stable music experience, unlike all the Play Store apps I've tried. I might have to put F-Droid on there and explore those apps as well.

>but I can ssh with it

From AmigaOS? What implementation are you using?

I am not aware of any that can connect to defaults-configured, present time openssh servers.

On netbsd, yes it works as it's just openssh. I use it regularly.

I understand, like others have pointed out this will be an echo chamber result set. However it's nice to know I am not alone (especially being young). My newest vehicle is from 1999, my smartphone is going on 6 years old (still 2 days on a charge) I have 15 apps total on it and spend a max of 20 minutes a day on it. My newest computers are in my rack from 2018 (I have a small hosting business). Asus ultrabook from 2016 still plays my video games fine and decent battery life.

No IoT, no automation stuff. I have a tv w/htpc but it has been unplugged for 6 years. I get all of my current events/media from RSS feeds or email (highly curated). During the day mobile notifications are silenced. I mostly pay in cash when I go out. Had a fitbit 5 years ago never connected to phone, got rid of it when it died.

I like the sound of the engine when I drive, otherwise FM radio. I avoid taking my phone when I go places unless I need GPS, but I often print directions if I'm traveling to semi familiar areas. I always keep a few maps in the glove box as well.

I was recently laid off and I'm bummed because it's going to be hard finding a new remote work job in tech that isn't soul sucking in regards to tech.

I gotta ask:

Why?

Why throw all the working stuff away? I don't feel any need-for or right-to new & shiny things if there are less new things that work just as well.

I'm bothered by the fact that my partner doesn't want to use silverware from a thrift store... Despite the fact it's no different than eating at a restaurant... But mostly because why new? If everyone always buys new shit then we're always throwing out old shit and things start getting made for the sake of being new and shiny rather than by doing any one thing better. We add niceties like auto-adjusting steeringwheels and heated seats as an excuse to keep producing. Ah. Well. Steam ran out. I just prefer things simple.

What point would you like me to hit? Surveillance even if it's passive and I have nothing to hide is probably the biggest reason for most of my habits. Money and trust. The other reason is probably mental health, reducing stimulus helps me dramatically with anxiety. I typically walk around with headphones in silence. I can still hear everything, it's just quieter. If you do it long enough you'll know what I mean.

And ttt11199907 covered the consumerism part

If your vehicle is a car, modern cars are a lot safer than the 90s cars. It’s not only about the structure and airbags in case of a crash, the stability control electronics have improved a lot in the recent years. Now you can turn the wheel to aim where you want to go and the electronics try their best.

Yeah, I don't want it. I spend the past 7 years in automotive engineering (firmware/controls systems stuff) I much prefer older stuff. Every time I hop in a newer car and it jerks the wheel from me or slams the brakes because a smudge is on the camera or a reflection. My truck weighs nearly 8klbs and is over 20ft long, I carry enough insurance to assume myself and the vehicle I hit will all be dead, god forbid it ever happens. Again my experience in automotive I have learned that newer is not "built to last" in a business sense and parts manufacturers (and remans) obsolete parts for newer vehicles faster as well (or at least the supply chain dries up MUCH quicker), we have seen vehicles scrapped for easy reasons because the repair job cost more than the vehicle was worth IMO due to complexity or availability.

I could continue to blow hot air in your direction for hours. Needless to say I'm hoping to get out of automotive and keep my old vehicles on the road for as long as the government allows.

I buy very few big-ticket items new.

Cars? Used, DIY repair for everything except tires, drive them 10-15 years until New England rust kills them.

Computers? Work buys new but I try to skip an upgrade cycle. (I'm on a 2019 MBPro; prior to that was a 2013.) For home, I bought the kids open-box low-end gaming PCs (~$650ea) but for myself am using a perfectly usable Haswell-era Dell I bought on Craigslist for $75 and upgraded with an SSD.

Phones? We buy 1-2 year old iPhones and run them usually through a second battery [DIY replaced]. (Kids and I are on the iPhone X (qty 2) and XS still.)

For me, it's partly about saving money and diverting that money towards retirement, but it's also a matter of "I don't need or want to go through the shopping and upgrade process every 18-24 months; I have better things to do."

I shop well/carefully but infrequently.

I love the idea of the Internet of Things, but I hate how it primarily seems to be playing out. I am loath to have anything on our home network that needs a third party server and its own app in order to operate. I do have some smart plugs and smart lights and I love what they let me do--and I am working to integrate them with Home Assistant and cut off all traffic from them to the Internet at the router. No smart TV. No smart speakers. No voice-activated anything (which seems a bit hollow since I also suspect our phones are listening anyway, but that's apparently where I draw the line at my own security theater) but also I would love a voice activated house... once I've managed to set up something like Talon[0] to do it!

[0] https://talonvoice.com/

I've got all my lights and air conditioners wired up with ESPHome. They live on their own network, run open-source software and can't access the internet - or each other - at all.

IoT done right is great. IoT where it's wall-to-wall corporate lock-in attempts sucks.

They're just tools. How often do you upgrade your screwdrivers because you like the handles on the newer model better? Sounds silly, doesn't it?

My iPhone is 4 years old, it's a 2nd gen SE. Still does what I need it to do. My laptop is a 2012 MacBook Pro. It still basically works but it's starting to have issues so I'll be replacing it this year.

I was late to the Apple Watch game, having just getting one a year ago. I don't see why I'll ever replace it until it simply fails mechanically.

I stopped using my iPad because I couldn't do everything I needed to do an an iPad so I still needed my MacBook. Given that I have an iPhone, it just hit a spot I don't need. It seems like the options are laptop, table, phone - pick two.

Is that downsizing? Not really. I just get the tools I need as I need them.

> I was late to the Apple Watch game, having just getting one a year ago. I don't see why I'll ever replace it until it simply fails mechanically.

I find I’ve upgraded through two Apple Watches for the same reason: battery life degradation. It gets to the point where you have to charge twice a day or wake up in the morning with a dead watch (I wear mine overnight for the sleep tracking).

This should have been a user replaceable battery.

I paid Apple ~$80 to replace my Series 5 battery… they actually just exchange it with another device. I thought it was worth it and happy to keep using it until I can no longer get the latest watchOS.

Interestingly, if Apple loses its patent case it won't be able to do this with the affected devices (if they are out of warranty). I don't know why there's a difference based on warranty status, but according to the legal blogs I read there is.

If you use inferior screwdrivers and do find one with a handle which works, you notice it.

The cost of tools is a lot less than it used to be. I think mentally I'm stuck in "but that screwdriver cost $5" thinking, when $5 fed you and watered you all day.

You're not wrong...

and that's why they're still able to sell new laptops, tablets, and phones. People still like new stuff even if their existing stuff is adequate.

> They're just tools.

Honestly when I was younger computers were just a lot more fun. You want to do a LAN party? Be prepared for an hour of diagnosing network problems -- and we liked that! Take that one example and multiply it by everything. Tweaking and customizing and finding random cool software was all part of the experience.

Same with smartphones before the iPhone.

These days perhaps products all just too good and too finished. They are just tools now -- they have less intrinsic fun hacker value on their own.

I have gone a little Retro -- picking up old devices and not using them for anything useful.

I miss the feeling that because I knew technology I could make things more fun by tinkering away at it.

Now? It just doesn’t make sense. No need to futz around with some crazy LAN party setup. Everybody who wants to play a game together connects online and it just works.

I love tech and gadgets, but have been doing longer upgrade cycles. I also have automated a large amount of stuff in my house with smart switches etc. and love it.

My biggest regret has been the Tesla Model 3. The touchscreen, in lieu of buttons was a step backward. Also, they recently did an update to auto steer that gives you demerits if you have two hands on the wheel but spend too much time looking at the touchscreen (which controls everything on the car and has poorly designed menus that are not easy to use when driving). Basically if it doesn't like how you are using it on a drive it deactivates the feature for the rest of the drive, then after 5 times of it doing that it disables the feature for a week. That is a step too far, especially since my biggest use case for using the autosteer is to be able to find things on the poorly designed touchscreen interface on the car.. That is before you get into the higher insurance cost and the quality that is not nearly as good as my older Volvo and Audii. From that standpoint the older cars are much better.

Tbh I don't think I will ever go for a car that tries to do too much for me. Maybe when I'm old and I can't drive myself anymore-- but it's kind of too eerie (yet cool?) for me.

I am following a similar path, but it's less of a deliberate attempt to be "conscious" and more simply a lack of interest.

Most of the stuff out there simply isn't that interesting to me anymore, whether that be news articles at a prestigious tech publication or the latest device. Generative AI tools are cool but the constant "we're almost to AGI" hype has become tiresome and cultish. Even the new Apple headset just looks kind of lame. The coolest tech things I've seen in recent years are cyberdecks, which are almost always not using the latest and greatest technology.

Somewhat, mainly out of frugality, but I also feel in some ways that we (my family and I) are still being pretty extravagant. I have a desktop (that's probably 9 years old for the MB/processor and a GPU that's about the same vintage--though I upgraded to 16 GB RAM last year, and the case is going on 20 or so by now ("is this not my family's axe?"))

Spouse has a Surface tablet that's only a couple years newer

Dedicated "desktop" computers for the kids (~$300 NUC-like) and another one for a media center/central home server

Spouse and I each have our own decent but not top of the line phones, and there's a phone for each kid as well (which, even more than the computers, we try to emphasize are for their use but not under their ownership, to minimize fights over what they can have on them)

So far I feel like it's been a good compromise between lavish spending on unnecessary things, investing in growth and development, and a few indulgences here and there or what's the point of working so hard?

I love the retro aesthetic. I use i3 for my window manager. I'm encouraging (and helping) my kids to learn Vim and Emacs, and hope to switch them over to Linux at some point because I feel at this point that it offers a genuinely better UX for most of the things we want to do, and the only reason to use Windows at all is for things that Just Don't Work on Linux (looking at you, Minecraft Bedrock!)

It's not quite my daily driver yet, but I have a 65C02 based "dumb phone". The modem is a 4G LTE modem, but the electronics and interface are managed by a 65C02. It's currently being emulated on an ARM SoC, using a hand written 65C02 emulator, but at some point in the future, I'll port the firmware to an actual 65C02.

The whole thing started as a joke. I ported WozMon to it, so that when folks ask me what sort of phone I have, I can call it an "Apple clone". But, I can use it to answer calls, send and receive text messages, and do very basic cardinal direction and distance based GPS navigation.

Keep in mind that folks who are not downsizing will probably not comment here, so if you are actually looking for numbers, this may bot be the best way to do it.

Personally, I don't buy new devices every single year, but I'm not downsizing my phone or computer any time soon. I still keep my smartphone with me at all times, I'm not getting rid of my desktop, and I'm totally happy with how things are.

I'm just curious to see if there's a general trend rather than specific numbers - I seem to be coming across more and more sites that cover this kind of topic so I was curious to see what the hackers thought... The Permacomputing site caught my eye the other day: https://permacomputing.net

I tried using a Game Boy Advance SP with my son. It has no internet connection and he gets to play some fun stuff. It worked really well!

But when it comes to reducing my tech footprint, the only issue I found with going down this path were bank apps. It is basically a requirement to have either an iOS or Android modern device to do anything.

Do banking via their website?

Still works for me. I've never had a mobile device of any kind and banking hasn't been an issue. My bank (Ally) briefly made some noise about deposits moving to mobile-only but they seem to have backed off. I guess it'll probably happen someday.

The only thing I've encountered that I truly can't use is the city bikeshare program.

Many banks require you to use their crappy custom-made 2FA apps that require Android/iOS

US Financial Institutions? Do you have an example?

Not actively or consciously, but my purchasing desires have certainly reduced.

Laptops:

Lost interest because I find them too expensive or complicated. Either to get what i initially want, or for upgrades down the line. Obviously my opinion would change if I travelled extremely frequently, but for the last many years I've had 0 need for portability.

Tablets:

Never felt the need for one after i got a decent phone

Phone:

Never felt the need to upgrade since I bought a phone that did everything I want and fast enough. Xiaomi 9, extremely happy with it

Desktop PC:

My preference. Good thermals, easy individual part upgrades. Can get great deals either new or second hand. Computing power has been strong enough for a while now that I happily run a few generations behind without feeling the need to upgrade.

My laptop is nearly 10 years old (MacBook Pro Mid-2014).

My phone is nearly 7 years old (iPhone8).

A Raspberry Pi3 has replaced my home server.

Honestly, part of my motivation has been power consumption. Running a fat multi-core PC with heaps of memory and a beefy GPU pulls a lot of watts, and ... I don't need it. The very few times I could use the extra grunt, I can also really just wait an extra minute or two ...

Does buying mp3s and burning CDs count? If an artist I like comes out with a new album, I like to buy a digital copy to support them more than streaming. Then I also don't have to worry about it suddenly disappearing or being edited one day.

I remember back in the day we used to do that the other way around ;-) That said, I do think it makes sense to have both physical and digital copies regardless of which one you buy!

Most of the synths and drum machines I own are from the 1980s, if that counts? ;)

When I bought a Raspberry Pi 5 recently (to run as a always-on local web-server) it did cross my mind that it was probably plenty powerful enough for 95% of what I do.

I’ll stick with my 64 core threadripper for now though :D

Phone: just gone from iPhone 12 to 15 Pro. Not noticed much difference, will stick for a while I reckon.

TV: recently did my once every ten years upgrade to a Sony A95, which was a mind blowing improvement.

iPad: mostly been buying reconditioned models, as they’re all plenty powerful enough.

So other than the iPads, not really downsizing yet, but it feels like most average tech is actually super powerful these days, so I can see myself doing more in the future.

I still use a Mid 2014 MacBook Pro as my personal machine. It's getting a bit slow now, and can't update past macOS 11, but it still does everything I need. I'll probably upgrade this year after I hit the 10 year mark.

I'm still running one of these too. It's been a great machine. Heavy daily use for nearly 10 years!

I dropped it maybe 4 years in, and bent the right-rear USB port out of square. Which sucked a bit, but then about 3 years ago, the battery swelled, so I got that replaced and they gave me a new top case as part of it. Which meant the USB port worked again, and my worn-through keycap legends were replaced with brand new ones too!

It cost the best part of $5000 in 2014. So that's now down to a touch over $10 a week over its lifetime. I'm hoping the next one does this well.

Mine has been great too. The battery barely holds a charge anymore, and the hinge is a bit stiff, but I mostly use it at home so not bothering to fix. The thing I’m going to miss though, is the glowing Apple logo on the back of the lid. Completely useless but I like it!

Not the hardware, but the software, stripping down, SDK included, as much as possible for my own usage.

Then you realize how filthy the software stack is... and not for the good reasons.

A bit extreme, but have you looked into Hundred Rabbits, their software stack and their philosophy? https://100r.co/site/home.html

Quite the opposite. Training AI models for fun, moving to local instead of cloud services, using ML features on phones… I have an older iPad and really look forward to upgrading for better battery life, faster charging, more power for ML stuff. The affordable computers of five years from now are still not powerful enough to do all the stuff I’d like to do. System memory growth (not to mention GPU memory growth) continues to be too slow. What curious geek doesn’t want to train their own custom GPT-5 on their home PC? Absolutely not downsizing, but I don’t judge those who want to.

I always hated the idea to have an Apple Watch. I told everyone, so no one would ever gift one to me. Then - at first to my disdain - my wife gave one to me, because she feared I could not get help if something happened on my long runs through lonely woods.

Then I found: the thing is my solution to my Smartphone addiction. It has music, podcasts, a phone, I can fine tune notifications so I only get interrupted when I wish and I can have all my cards on it, just like the iPhone. But: no social media. No quick browsing. No reading. So now, I spend a lot of time just with the watch, especially when we go out.

I bought one a ±year ago and I think it's easily my best tech purchase of the last decade, if only for the fitness functions.

I am moving away from devices that have inbuilt non user replaceable batteries. That's been my single largest gripe over the last couple of years. It also seems to be the easiest method for manufacturers to build in obsolescence into products. Once dead, the product gathers dust with me forgetting the whole cycle of having to get it repaired or serviced.

The other one is headphone sockets in devices. I want wired headsets, not dongles and missing DACs.

Non smart TVs and Displays. No, I do not want internet connectivity built into a display.

> Non smart TVs and Displays. No, I do not want internet connectivity built into a display.

How's that working out for you?

I was looking at buying a nice screen for movies and such the other and like you, I don't care for smart TVs, so was looking at computer screens. Didn't find anything noteworthy above 43" (some LG model). In the end, I went with a smart TV that I don't connect to the internet. Works well enough.

Went with a large 4k monitor for most other stuff.

I upgrade when I need to. Im still running a 2015 macbook pro (I have two that I rotate if I have an issue with one). I have this version because of all the ports, then the M chips didnt have the virtualbox support I needed. I regularly use the SD card port (gopro) and hdmi ports.

Now that the M chips have virtualization and the laptops actually have ports Ill probably upgrade at some point, but I actually dont need to. One of my laptops could break completely and I would just migrate to the working one.

I keep my phones until I drop them or until they get too slow. I use samsung phones as I dont like the usability of apple phones (no T9 dialing) or the way icloud, photo storage, etc work. How do you get pictures off your phone into folders? It is annoying that the iphone cant mount as a drive.

I have a dell t3500 desktop (2012?). I have maxed out the ram, upgraded the cpu, and have large SSD drives. It is fast enough for what I do on windows which is just running blue iris these days.

I have plastic casio gshock watch with atomic time updates and solar. I think it is 10-12 years old.

I drive a 13 year old truck and my wife an 8 year old minivan. I do want an electric car but hate all the computerization of the dash. A friend imported an electric car from china and the controls are basically like a golf cart.

another friend converts classic cars into electric cars and I might be willing to convert an old truck to electric.

I definitely dont downsize, but I only upgrade when a usability issue makes me upgrade.

> How do you get pictures off your phone into folders?

Just plug it into a computer. iPhones mount as a digital camera and will let you copy your photos easily. It’s also possible to copy files onto an iPhone through USB but that requires a supported app to be installed.

I managed to eke out 5 years on an XPS15 I was issued, but with no Windows 11 support (9570) its lifespan was limited.

I ran Ubuntu for a while, but 23.10 broke LUKS and graphics support on my Nvidia GPU was limited.

I’ve just bought a 2.5 MacBook Pro 16” refurbished, and my iPhone is 3 years old and counting with no plans to upgrade.

I think getting as long as we can out of our devices is crucial, but the big wheel keeps on turning with technologies like Windows 11 and even Chrome.

It’s an honourable endeavour but certainly disincentivised by big tech.

I’m not sure if this counts but I recently got a kindle and I love it, the screen is much easier on my eyes than my iPad, and since the device is so basic there’s no ability to flip to a browser or play music or anything else, which keeps me focused on what I’m reading.

I tend to prefer desktops because the hardware is generally lasting longer, both in terms of reliability and in terms of performance. My current PC has 9 years, still works perfectly fine for what I do (no gaming nor AI, but web/e-mail of course, C++, photo processing and some electronic design), and will probably still survive some time. Only thing I changed (once) is the screen. My main phone is an old dumbphone with 3G (2G has been shut down here...).

I prefer desktops because is something breaks I have a chance of working around it immediately (e.g. screen), and if not then I can have a replacement part sent to me in about 24 hours or less which I can install myself.

It's better for the environment as well, because you're not throwing the whole thing out/leaving it to the whim of whoever is supposed to recycle it, plus you can selective change components that are bothering you - keyboard, mouse etc.

My own desktop is a mid tier machine from 2013 and I do game on it and it still is fine. Of course, not everything will run on a ten year old machine, but surprisingly many games still work fine. I am thinking about an update for some time and holding back because of the much increased price and annoying availability issues, but unless I want to play something high end like say, cyberpunk, which I really would like, I don't think I would actually need a real "gaming machine" to play much of what I play today. Just a few more gigs of vram would go a long way (I only have 1).

> I eschewed desktops in favour of laptops

I went the other way. I get gaming desktops - they have all the power I need for working in this industry, and they are expandable and re-configurable as times change so I can just update parts instead of needing a whole new system when needs change. No "whole device" upgrades are needed.

Clearly, this doesn't work for travelling for work, but if my job needs me to have a more mobile solution, they they need to provide it.

I'm not really "going retro" in the sense of deliberately downgrading my computing hardware. But I do try to limit "smart" devices as best I can. The TVs I have are technically "smart" but I keep them disconnected from the internet and instead use them as a portal for Apple TVs or gaming consoles. I have relatively recent computers because I play games on one and I like my main productivity computer (and phone) to run smooth.

But I am tending to use less and less stuff on my devices. I largely use my computer to watch things, scan things to clean out my office of old documents, writing, chat, etc. Most of my time is spent in a web browser consuming stuff because I don't have the energy to do things like chores or program or other things that take mental energy that I might want to do. I'm even moving away using computers for notes or scheduling, and putting more effort into doing all that by hand on paper. It's nice to slow down and put more creativity into that instead of always staring at a screen for pretty much everything I do all the time. Helps me think better, think about the big picture more. And it's fun too.

I haven't bought anything for years, all my income is scoped to go to retirement and financial freedom, anything that I buy must be extremely needed, I actively avoid people that buy gadgets or tech, because I also feel consumerism is for boring people with little arguments, but that's anecdata and is personal

EDIT: I flag every post about gadgets I see here on HN, my contribution to a better society

What do you do for excitement instead ?

Not sure how the things are related? How should buying something excite me? .-. I watch stuff with friends, go out with friends, organise dinners at home, bbqs, etc.

Should be noted that I am italian so maybe there could be a cultural difference to explain myself

Probably not related but wasn't sure how you defined 'consumerism'

> I watch stuff with friends, go out with friends

To me this is consumption too.

You are defining it as consuming physical things (that are not food ) ?

For me there is a difference, I am not continuously looking forward to the latest beer, I am looking forward to an experience, I could also go out and have a chat with a friend on a bench, without consuming anything, I have been talking with a friend on a bench in a park until 4 AM in the morning few weeks back, and we didn't consume anything, but even if we have a beer, I am paying for the experience of spending time with someone, not the beer itself

Definitely, If you can sit on the beach everyday by yourself or with a friend, then yea you go can go with consumption.

I think most ppl would find that intolerable after a few days. I think you can't either based on your first response. You are resorting to consuming media, consuming food ect. I don't understand how consuming a movie is very different from consuming a new gadget. Surely gadget also gives you an "experience"?

I am just upset with a system that exploits people weaknesses in order to sell them something, so I don't want to support it, that's why I am continuously acting in order to unsupport it, advocate for a life without gadgets

I recently have to reconsider this definition and set boundaries with my friends. Finding the ability to have a fun experience together that wasn't centered around paying for access to the experience, such as access to a place or event, or in drugs/alcohol. We were all kinda taught we have to "buy" something in order to have fun. Beer, food, vacation, concert tickets, so on. I'm not saying I don't do that any more but when I'm with my friends I'm there for a reason and I want it to be them, not the thing we paid for, it comes secondary.

I find this surprising. Did we not just have a pandemic, where people had to have fun without 'going out' and spending money? It was great to see so many people gathering in parks etc. instead of going to restaurants.

I found it very strange and sad that after the lifting of lockdowns people went right back to the way things used to be. Did we learn nothing? Such a squandered opportunity.

What happened to just meeting up in a street or at someone's place and 'hanging out' informally? At what point did it become near-obligatory to have a sit-down dinner or 'go out' to enjoy the company of friends?

I have my personal opinions with the pandemic, but I would have to agree as an opportunity to embrace more positive social behaviors. Surely didn't stick in my woods either. Plenty of things changed, but I would agree. The other part is that at this point were going on 4 years since and I would say my social habits in my age group just changed anyway, so IDK to be honest.

Serial murders

Of people buying gadgets, my contribution to deceleration :D

How do you know if something is extremely needed if you don't see other people using it?

In fact as I said I haven't bought anything for years :D

I think that's an odd way to determine needs for oneself.

Unless you build everything you need from scratch I don't see how it's odd.

I use a Thinkpad T460s (Linux), 4 year old Android phone and an old Garmin running watch I bought off ebay.

The simple fact for me is that all of these types of devices are thoroughly comoditised now, and almost perfected, so even old tech runs well, for my needs at least. I don't experience any issues not being "up to date" and it feels satisfying to not have blown thousands trying to keep up.

I like the Thinkpad T-Series. I own a T430 (equipped with a i5 quad-core processor and Full-HD IPS display), T450s, T480s, and T14. I can confirm that even a decade-old T430, after some upgrades, is still sufficient for using firefox + terminal + tmux + nvim, programming, running containers, and managing k8s clusters with kubectl and k9s.

If someone is actively looking for a second-hand device on eBay, I recommend the T480 as it has a very good price/performance ratio. Pick one with a i5/i7 quad-core, 32 GB Ram, FHD or WQHD IPS display and you will be fine.

I am posting this from a used T480 I got on eBay for $250 a couple months ago. What a deal! I'll never buy a new computer again. The only thing I changed was the battery, which was basically shot.

Does your T480s support 32GB? I know some ram is soldered and there is only one ram slot.

Or did you mean buy a T480 that has dual ram slots? 16x2

I actually have both - a T480s from work and a T480 as my personal device. I do recommend the T480 since it has dual RAM slots, and the maximum RAM for the T480s is 24GB. Plus, the battery can be swapped out. The only things I like better in the T480s are the materials, form factor, and weight.

Not sure about the T480s, but I'm posting this comment from a T480 with 64GB ;-)

I have a T14 at work, but I actually prefer the second-hand T480 I bought for home use.

I've not bought a new computer in decades. The only non-retro thing is adoption of SSD storage where ever possible. It's such a cheap way to radically improve the performance of old computers.

For fun, I've got Termux on my Motorola G Power 2021, my first Smartphone/magic glass slab. In that folder, I've got SimH compiled, and a Vax 11/780 that I emulate, running OpenVMS 7.3. Telnetting into it from my laptop is a fun exercise in retrocomputing.

As far as going retro goes, I've got a friend I help restore old electronics. I've learned to hate Silver Mica capacitors. I'm starting to not jump when smoke or sparks come out of them. The odd thing is that on old (1940s-50s) technology, smoke coming out isn't necessarily a death sentence... stuff still works after that. We recently got a 1947 TV set going. We've done all sorts of things including radios, ham gear, and Cesium Beam atomic clocks.

I've you've got questions about old electronics, I can probably get you an answer.

I use an upgraded Thinkpad X61, coupled with a screen from 2010 as my daily machine. This setup has not failed my once. The X61 is also incredibly small and easy to travel with. I use the current LTS release of Ubuntu. I also have 2 other Thinkpads (R60 and T510) which I sometimes use (mostly to watch movies) and a 2008 gaming PC which I sometimes use as a home server.

My living room TV is a 10 years old dumb device, attached to a Pi running Kodi.

My office TV is an old TV from the 70ies (also attached to Pi, connected via an HDMI->Antenna converter) which I bought on eBay for 15 EUR in 2007.

I buy only refurbished smartphones, because I cannot find a modern device which comfortably fits into my pocket during cycling.

Most of my other devices (keyboard, mouse, speakers, headphones, scanner, ...) I bought as a teenager in the mid-2000s. I only replace them when broken, which so far only happened to my old printer in 2014.

Our vacuum cleaner is also 15 years old.

We have slowly and unconsciously removed most electrical devices from our kitchen, with the exception of an early 2000s dishwasher, an electric kettle, a 1998 stove, a mixer from 2008, an IKEA fridge, and an old radio from the 70ies.

A few years ago, we needed a clothes dryer. After doing research for some days, we bought... a used Miele Novotronic from the 90ies in mint condition for 60 EUR from an old lady. (The build quality is ridiculous, I suspect this thing will outlive us).

Our family bikes are all pre-1985 (easier to repair than modern ones).

We are in our mid-/early 30ies with one child. We never consciously decided to downgrade our devices or "go retro". Typically, a modern device would break down, and we would replace it with its earlier version which was still located somewhere in our or our parent's basement or some closet. More often than not, we would not replace it because we didn't need it anymore (best example: coffee machines, a french press is completely sufficient and more convenient for us). There is also an aesthetic aspect. I simply find most modern devices incredibly ugly.

Also, maybe it's because I am getting old, but whenever I see a modern laptop / household appliance / car / etc., all my bullshit detectors go full blast (I also cannot stand devices telling me how to live my life, and for me this starts with a dishwasher that beeps when finished).

The last time I bought a bike was in the early 90's - still have and ride it. I didn't notice it being any different, repair-wise, from the bikes I had as a kid in the 70's. What's not easy to repair?

I also have an X61 w/ 8GB RAM and an SSD. Installed the Middleton BIOS. How is Ubuntu on it? I noticed the CPU always spikes to 100% when doing anything however it does not stay at 100%. Any limitations you run into for regular light usage?

> I buy only refurbished smartphones, because I cannot find a modern device which comfortably fits into my pocket during cycling.

This ! Exactly this. My -ideal- new smart phone would be half a galaxy flip. Small enough that i can still use the android parts i need, and big enough to do emergency browsing.

I can fit it in my pocket like a wallet.

I've gone retro with my watch. Wearing a simple Casio to avoid getting sucked into using my phone and checking notifications each time I want to see the time.

For my laptop I have an M1 pro macbook. It was a huge upgrade over the previous intel mac, but I don't feel the need to upgrade to the M2 or M3 machines, the M1 still feels really fast to me.

I likewise switched back to $20 Casio watch after a few years of Apple Watch. I loved a lot about the Apple Watch, but just couldn’t deal with the distraction and time suck of “let me see what time it is oh has anybody message me, my favorite person?” At first I was tempted to spend big on some Casio GShock and while the notifications wouldn’t be there I realized it was still scratching a similar “all-knowing” itch. So $20 Casio it’s been for awhile and I love it.

Quartz isn't retro enough for me...I find clockwork watches (especially with skeleton mechanisms) more appealing.

Not downsizing exactly, but I 'm still on my iPhone 12 mini.

Partly because I prefer the smaller screen but also because its still very fast and reliable. I had previous had a Gen 1 iPhone SE which I only gave up on due to accidental damage.

I don't normally wear a watch, but when I do I have a LED watch from the 1970's from Texas Instruments. Its a real battery hog but still fun.

https://digitalcollections.smu.edu/digital/collection/tir/id...

My Roku TV has wifi disabled and I rely on an older Apple TV for subscriptions (Netflix, PBS, Disney+). The main use-case for AppleTV though is the Infuse Pro app which I use to manage and play my media collection (backup of DVDs etc) from my NAS.

https://firecore.com/infuse

“Still on”. I bought this a year ago, because the bigger XR was hurting my hands

I like my 12 mini, but, man it feels like it has started slowing down for absolutely no good reason.

Will hold out for the next SE, whenever that is. Done buying the same phone over and over every 3 years.

I'm on a 13 mini and am hoping there's an SE this spring that merges the mini line with the SE line. OTOH, I'm guessing the 16 Pro that will come out this fall will have built-in LLM capabilities, which might be worth the size/cost tradeoff.

I set a goal to not buy any new computers (anything with a CPU) in the 2020s. I've broken that to buy a Steam Deck, which I justified to myself because it fits use-cases that nothing else that I have fits (particularly gaming on public transit). Otherwise things are going pretty smoothly. I'm using the same Samsung S10 that I got in 2018 I think. I'm using a laptop from the early 2010s. I upgraded the GPU in my desktop from an RX 590 to an RX 6650 XT, but only bexause the 590 had a problem that caused my system to unpredictably crash.

I've been wanting to abandon my smart phone entirely for a while now. I started using jmp.chat so I could use SMS and phone calling from any machine that supports XMPP. That has been quite nice; I hope to integrate it more into my life to replace my smart phone.

"A person's primary task should not be computing, but being human." - calmtech.com

I buy whatever works, and I run it until the wheels fall off.

My car is old and ugly, but it's absurdly practical, reliable and cheap to run. I don't use it much, and a new car would drive the dollar:pleasure ratio way down. It's not like my laptop that I use literally every day.

My laptop gets a lot more use. I use it until it's unbearable then get a new one. Macs last me forever, and I enjoy them day to day, so I get the latest Mac whenever mine becomes unsuitable. So far it's every 7-10 years.

I suspect that being in an ad-free bubble helps a lot with my consumption habits. Environmental and financial guilt are other strong demotivators. The other is not wanting do deal with more needy gadgets.

> Although Sales and Marketing would have us believe that we should upgrade our devices on a regular basis

Who would actually even believe that in the first place? Maybe it's an American thing, but with our French spending power, I know of absolutely no one in my family or friend group who has a set schedule for upgrading their devices. It's either "use until it breaks, then replace" or "use until I absolutely need a replacement because it's too slow", the latter of which usually being after 3 years or so.

As for downsizing, once again everyone I know isn't really "downsizing", but buying refurbished devices a few generations old, as the price for brand new devices, even refurbished ones, has gotten pretty crazy.

In Hong Kong I'm sure there is a (not small) section of the population that buys the new flagship every year.

I'm not going retro but I am trying to downsize. I used to have 3 monitors and 2 desktops in my office. I now have 1 monitor and 1 desktop. My end goal is to get comfortable with doing everything on a single Macbook. I really want to be rid of all the distracting crap. I feel like 3 monitors made me lazy and undisciplined.

Imagine being able to close your laptop, get in the car and not have to think for one second about whether or not you brought the appropriate accessories for productivity. This is about where I am at now. The big, multi-monitor battle stations are a prison.

The technology should serve the human. Not the other way around. Constructing a small datacenter in your own home is probably a good example of the later case.

I have a similar goal (1 laptop) but with a concession to have one monitor, probably with a built in USB C hub, as a docking station just for ergonomics sake.

Eventually it might be possible to only have a mobile phone that docks to a monitor and runs a full desktop os, like Samsung DEX.

I use 4K Dell U2723QE monitor as USB-C Hub, charge my laptop, connect two laptops at once, RJ-45 ethernet, and 3.5mm plug

Over the holiday break I wanted a tablet for casually playing games. So I broke out my iPad from around 2012 or so, only to find out most of the apps I tried to download were not compatible with my devices and my device's OS can not be upgraded anymore. I have two of these devices too :/

I feel like there should be more support for getting use out of your "old" devices. Thinking about the amount of waste is unsettling.

I made a little web scraper to find iOS games that worked on my device though, feel free to use it and/or modify the code to find apps you want: https://github.com/cjstewart88/vintage

I don't use any cloud-connected automation in my house. All my desktops run Linux of some variant other than my gaming machine. I've offloaded myself from Google services. The last bastion of cloud connectivity I have is my phone.

Different scenario, but similar concept.

I’m a League of Legends player and the makers of that game, Riot, are adding a very controversial kernel-level anti-cheat system. Even though it is being portrayed as a victory over cheaters, the system is very aggressive and greedily collects information compared to other anti-cheat systems. Owed by a Chinese company to boot.

The experience has me going through and re-thinking whether the privacy risk is worth the convenience, for not just games but all kinds of applications and services. The result has been deleting a lot of stuff.

I feel increasingly like just refusing to buy or use certain software is the only way to protect yourself

Kind of off-topic but: This legitimately feels like FUD. Riot's anti-cheat system is called Vanguard and it's one they built themselves. Of all the anti-cheat software out there, I'd assume theirs is one of the better ones in regards to not collecting information. I'd highly recommend providing some sources to back up those rather large claims.

I will concede that Riot is owned by Tencent which is a Chinese company.

I respect the desire to limit buying/using software, especially if that software compromises on ideals you have about privacy and data collection.

No I don’t have time to perform Google searches for you. The Internet is full to the brim of pages explaining it better than I can

> I’d assume

Why?????

It's not possible to live without a smart phone - at least need a phone with rich text messaging. I have iPhone 11 with no need or desire to upgrade. With busy family stuff text communication is an absolute must. I dont use any social media at all so texting is also how I keep connected to extended family and remote friends. I dont really use any apps on my phone besides the podcasts app and Spotify.

For watch I always just use a $20 timex digital watch. Always works. Battery lasts forever.

I have a 2019 MacBook Pro with 32GB ram and dont see any need to upgrade it.

I am fairly old school unix command line and VIM user. I use VIM plugins in IDEs.

No.

But I took an approach with my kid's smartphone that might interest you.

Bought her one of those e-ink hisense phones. Getting apps only through fdroid and apk-mirror is annoying, but bit seems to struck a balance between keeping her connected with friends and family, while not addicted to YouTube/tiktok/e.t.c - she doesn't even argue to have these installed, because of the black-white display with 4fps refresh rate.

We have other entertainment (has a switch, can borrow my deck, we have google-tv connected to projector screen) but this seems to be helping.

In college. I struggle a lot with ADHD. Some days I'm a machine, pulling Sam Altman levels of work hrs. Some days I cannot do the laundry. I'm still working on wrangling my symptoms & building better habits. So instead of an iPhone I use the CAT smart fliphone. Way better, and built-in w/ an instant pickup line too ("can I get your myspace" lol).

iPhone's apps are designed for addiction. the OS does things I don't want. My dumb brick has youtube music & a touchscreen when I need it

Driving my 1972 VW. I've learnt a lot over 2+ years. Did some repairs myself. For example, starter didn't crank at one point of time. Removed it, disassembled, cleaned, installed back. Works. Installed new, programmable distributor instead of old one. Did some basic electric work.

I think it's essential to do this kind of stuff, so you won't get dumbed down by "you don't need it" narrative one day, finding yourself helpless and dependent on "experts".

I always cheap out on my desktop setup (somewhat) but it's currently an old i5-4000 series in an old Lenovo M73 Tiny running Windows 10 stripped barebones.

The CPU in the weird cellular base station product I'm reverse engineering is significantly more powerful than my desktop PC, but c'est la vie...

As for my phone: I use an iPhone. At the end of the day it's a system I don't have to care and feed. It just works and does what I want it to and I don't need anything else.

A phone, like my other digital devices, is a tool - I try to upgrade my tools only when I can't feasibly fix them anymore, or they by nature can't do what I need them to do.

I don't really use my phone much, and go out of my way not to install apps. Though that means I get into some sticky situations, it also means that when I need a new device, I can typically buy last year's flagship at half price. My current phone (2021) is more than enough to meet my needs. Frankly, my phone before that (2016) also was, but sadly none of the corner "fix your battery!" shops wanted to open up an HTC phone.

My laptop is a ThinkPad T460p (2016 model, acquired 2019), which replaced a ThinkPad T500 (2009 model, acquired 2012) when said ThinkPad struggled with rendering 1080p video, which replaced an HP nx6325 (2006 model, acquired 2006) when said HP proved itself unable to do video calls at more than a few frames per second.

I wouldn't call these things "retro" by any means - those honors go to some other systems in my life. I have a 100-milliwatt FM transmitter, some radios, and Kodi Media Center, in place of a Sonos system. Ditto the Casio calculator watch, instead of a smartwatch - the calculator and other functions actually do get used multiple times per week.

What is the FM transmitter?

My daily driver phone is a Galaxy s10e (which I bought when my s7 got hinkey, because it could more or less fit into the same leather wallet case). It is not rooted because TBH I don't do much more than calls, web, chat, email on it (in that order).

Work requires an android security patch level less than 6 months old, so I decided the new Pixel 8 pro would give me at least 7 years before I have to replace it. I use it on Wifi only, and my life is improved by not always being connected to work. It takes nice pictures but so far I am wasting all that power. I need it to last 7 years.

I have an Android tablet for movies on travel (Galaxy Active Tab Pro). But mostly - I prefer a machine I have close to full control over. I am a Windows guy, so I have a a 2014 era HP x360 for super light "throw it in bag and forget it" and a cheap Dell Latitude refurb which came with a GPU (200 bucks shipped), 32gb RAM and a 2018 era i7. It runs older games admirably. When I had my work stuff on my s10e, I would bring the x360 on vacay instead of my work laptop and just use Dex if something blew up which needed my attention. (Mostly not needed, but I lole to be ready).

I have a NAS device running Windows Server 2022 which does backup / JellyFin / misc duties. It is an old i7 from 2015 with 32gb DDR3. Runs like a champ.

I am looking at some point to clean up my Google account by pulling everything down and burning it to MDISC.

I have a fairly modern gaming PC I built, but mostly don't use it. The Dell laptop is my daily driver personal machine and I love it. Possibly the best 200 bucks I have spent in my computing life.

Where did you buy that dell? I'm shocked by the low price.

Slickdeals every now and again has a promo code for laptops at dellrefurbished.com.

Just looked up my order, it was a Dell Precision 7520 shipped for 211 USD.

This is a rather personal opinion, but I have gone one more step ahead. Physical devices should be entirely replaceable. We believe in owning our data despite the “Cloud.” However, at least one copy of every content lives somewhere online/backed up where we can quickly get it back when needed. The idea is to use any computer/device easily instead of one perfectly.

Currently, our family leverages the Apple Ecosystem to get things done. We maintain backups of most options so we can walk out of the ecosystem when needed. We will lose the seamlessness, but things should still work.

We run most other services geared towards the more open Linux Ecosystem while leaving the content part easily accessible across environments.

For instance, I like the form factor of the iPhone 13 Mini and hanging on to it. But when I need it replaced, I will move on. I use a Laptop on travels but love the big screen and power of a Desktop at home. I have been using an iMac since the Pandemic started. People bring Laptops to meetings; I don’t do that anymore - pen and paperwork for almost everything, and I can give undivided focus to the other person. Of course, the Smartphone can come in as a backup if needed - schedule a calendar event, email the notes you just took, etc.

Last year I built a MiSTer FPGA connected to a Sony PVM that I bought from a friend. I have a bunch of old games I purchased on a Wii U that I’m now playing on the MiSTer. It’s been a refreshing experience to have a dedicated gaming machine that is its own device.

I also began using a film camera and really love traveling with it. I’m taking much better pictures with constraints!

Next, I purchased a turntable and a bunch of my favorite albums for it. It’s really fun holding a huge album cover in your hands and deliberately flipping records. I love those little type of repetitive activities. It’s oddly comforting for me when I perform.

My other favorite device is a Kobo eReader that I read a lot of books on. I have been reading quite a bit more now that I have a distraction free device.

Finally, I eschewed streaming services and built my own home media server on Jellyfin with content that I have purchased.

There’s something about analog and/or dedicated devices that gels really well with me. They help reduce decision paralysis, and I feel like I’m able to appreciate each activity more. I haven’t tried to be intentional with any of these switches. They just felt like the right thing to do at the time as new tech has lost my interest with changes that I view as hostile.

With age, I've realized that new shiny things don't do much for me. The opposite has become apparent, in fact.

The value I derive from using something increases over time as it ages. This works better with some things than others. For example, a house or older audio equipment which doesn't tend to degrade quickly over time.

As a result, I find myself spending more time enjoying those things which age better over time than new technology which does not.

I try and leave the phone at home some days and get by on a cellular smart watch. It has no browser and no YouTube, which are probably my main distractions.

I'm actively avoiding many smart devices. I do not want a connected washer/dryer/fridge/etc. I want a dumb TV. I want to replace my Roku with a homebrewed or less tracking option (not sure what). I set up a home security camera system instead of Ring.

I have an older desktop and laptop (10-15 years old), but it seems those will need to be upgraded in about 18 months due to TPM module requirements and Win11.

> I have an older desktop and laptop (10-15 years old), but it seems those will need to be upgraded in about 18 months due to TPM module requirements and Win11.

It's not yet strictly required. I run Windows 11 on a tpm-less 2012 or 2013 era PC with 0 issues.

The only hassle is that it won't update on its own between major versions (22h2 -> 23h2). It does get regular updates without any issue, though.

This is an otherwise quite capable machine, I slapped a nice-ish GPU in there during COVID lockdowns and it's my gaming rig.

I want a dumb tv but I just got back into piracy and found out that my TV can play x264 and even x265 videos over DLNA, as well as USB

streaming service and licensing ridiculousness did this to themselves. we all have fast enough internet, wifi, VPNs and everything we need for pirated media consumption, in comparison to the enthusiast level of finesse needed pre-2010

- kept an iPhone 6S for nearly 7 years (2 battery replacements), now using an SE 3rd Gen (to keep old tech I like - touch ID and LCD rather than OLED - still a bit suspicious about headaches, given I use it phone low brightness)

- used a 2012 Mac Mini for nearly 11 years, now upgraded (same product line) - philosophy has always been migrating operating systems is a massive pain (for anyone who uses package management or occasionally has to compile things, anyway). Was annoyed to lose the infra-red receiver as well as having to use an external SDXC reader. Also Apple don't seem to deliver quite as much power to the USB ports anymore?

- still have an iPod Touch I use occasionally (so light - 88g or 3.1oz - and so comfortable to hold)

- refuse to buy AirPods etc (costly, wasteful, extra complexity, latency...)

- refuse to buy a Smart Speaker because really, whatever is the point? I can listen to radio streams on my computer with PyRadio, I can type the address of the Met Office website and if I want an alarm I can use my phone or my watch. (sidenote: have had Siri turned off for years)

- keen on quality, single purpose items - e.g. torch, head torch, FM radio, desk lamp, GPS unit, USB microphone.

- watches: a Timex with a button you press to light up the face, a solar Casio G-shock and a solar Citizen eco-Drive for "smarter" occasions)

- trying to do things in Vim (nvim)

- first proper mechanical keyboard being delivered today - very excited!

- signed up to HN a few days ago for first time

Thing I really wish we could have had in the UK when I was young: probably Minitel. Also feel a bit nostalgic for the Amstrad PCW I owned (although daisywheel printer was far too loud).

I don't know if this counts, but I haven't bought any brand new device for maybe 10 years. I do buy refurbished stuff once in a while, though.

This has always been my policy. Use your machines/phones until they die/become unusable and only then buy something new. All my desktops/laptops/tablets are over 10 years old (core duo/core 2 duo/core i7) and my phone 6 years (Pixel 2). Only this year have i bought a new Macbook Pro (M3 Max) since my old mid-2010 27-inch iMac died (which i will get repaired soon with others).

That is strange policy. The machine may never die, there are Commodore 64's that still work.

One should use the machine while it enables an efficient workflow. As soon as it doesn't, and there are those that do for a reasonable price, one should switch. Anything else is equal to wasting time, which is obviously a bad thing.

This is highly contextual. I do drive 20 years old car but it is great, I almost never maintain it, it gets me from A to B in the same time as new cars and in given city landscape is equally safe. Buying a new car would be total waste of money AND time now. Contrary, I can replace phone or headphones within a year if there are annoying things that make me lose time.

You have misunderstood my comment. I wrote until they die/become unusable; so your sentiment "One should use the machine while it enables an efficient workflow. As soon as it doesn't, and there are those that do for a reasonable price, one should switch" is implicit here. The "workflow" varies from machine to machine.

For example;

1) Nexus 10 - battery replaced and being used a a ebook reader.

2) iPad (very old) - watch Youtube videos, surf and read iBooks.

3) Dell Inspiron laptop (2008) - Linux machine.

4) iPhone 4 - battery replaced, Stream music to a old Jawbone jambox bluetooth speaker. The sound is actually excellent, probably the iPhone4 DSP/DAC is very good.

5) Macbook Pro (2008) - Regularly used until a few years ago when it died. Needs to be repaired.

6) iMac 27-inch (mid-2010) - Was my main work machine until last year when it died. Needs to be repaired.

7) Surface Pro 1st gen (2012) - My only current usable machine.

8) Pixel 2 - My current phone.

As you can see any old device can be very well repurposed for some specific use. One should not get sucked into the "consumerist mindset" pushed by external forces but always think about needs/wants, financial burden and environmental effects.

This has always been my policy with everything be it cars/furniture/shoes/clothing/electronics/etc. i.e use everything to the fullest until they die/become unusable.

I'm still using a 32" 1368x768 TV, LG G8 phone from 2019, and my main driver is a 10.5" Surface Go 3 that I picked up used. Wired earphones are JVC HA-FXD80 (discontinued or I'd buy another pair) works great with the Quad-DAC in the G8.

I do have a desktop PC with a 2-core Intel CPU and a Radeon of some kind that's liquid cooled in a bland black PC case. Just enough to run StarCraft 2 well.

I would describe my progression as being from more smaller computers to fewer nicer computers. For "hyperconvergence", centralized hosting, easier backups, etc.

I ironically am kind of the opposite and I see efficiency gains/etc as being very attractive over time for machines I am going to use a lot. Going 9900K in a tower to 5700G in a Mini-Box M300 was revolutionary and a 7800X3D or 8800X3D will blow the doors off that too.

But I am not buying a bunch of shitty throwaway raspberry pis etc anymore either. I build good systems that have good cost-value (even if they're older/used/surplus) but target just a higher set of capabilities. Less stuff running is less clutter, less noise, lower power. I would prefer not to step down but stuff that can provide a desktop-experience (meaning 8C+ etc) in a SFF factor is also attractive, as is powerful expansion like TB3/USB4 or Oculink or MCIO.

I totally do love retro stuff etc, I am on a minidisc kick right now. And to some extent the ready availability of storage/containers/etc helps that!

I still have a 2018 MBP. As much as I like new things, I can't yet justify upgrading. iPad has aged into obscurity and likely won't be replaced. Moved from an Apple Watch to a Garmin Instinct 2 (wanted muuuch longer battery + GPS for backcountry camping/canoeing). I can read notifications but not respond from the watch, and this seems optimal distraction-wise.

i am not sure i am doing this because i get older. or because i feel those devices are taking too much place in our lives, and my life.

went from a smartphone to a lightphone 2. the smartphone is now always at home, and works like a phone + answer machine. i never take it with me, but daily when getting home i check messages, voicemail and answer/call people with it.

the lightphone i carry with me is only for family use. so no one, except a member of my family, has the number. so i can keep an eye on parents, siblings and stay informed at all times of anything that could happen.

i still have a tv but barely use it. and if it dies or stops working, i already know i will not replace it with another one. and most of the time, i plug that tv to a small laptop, and using youtube i watch videos and that's it.

but i have reduced all the hardware to only one piece of each. i no longer have 5 or 6 laptops at home. just one, and previous ones got sold on ebay.

I'd love to get rid of my home automation assistants (google atm), but I do love having streaming music across the house without resorting to sonos. I enjoy photo frames and timers, but those are easily replaceable. Lighting is helpful, but my phone can handle most.

Anyone have a non invasive replacement for at home streaming to dumb speakers?

I transmit on shortwave FM at low power.

That’s pretty neat. What transmitter do you use? I haven’t had something like that since probably the early 2000’s. Used it to play my iPod in my car when the cassette deck broke! Could only do mono IIRC

I use old Raspberry Pi 1B as FM transmitter

I can't see my exact model, but i think this one is pretty close.

https://www.banggood.com/2000M-0_5W-FM-Transmitter-Frequency...

Yes and no. I try to very consciously decide whether a new device is really needed and whether I get what I need out of it and how long I expect it to last.

For instance, I still run a Thinkpad X250 from ~2015 due to the replaceable battery and ability to swap batteries without shutdown. Yes, the CPU feels a bit slow after all the mitigations, but it's ok, I can compile remotely if need be.

For phone on the other hand, I decided to buy a back then new Pixel 6 due to the promised 5 years of security updates and good chances that I will be able to continue with it using LineageOS or so.

TV is ~6 years old by now, panel is still great, so I will switch it to a chromecast once the AndroidOS eventually breaks down inevitably.

But tbh, I don't think I've even been different, I always hated the trend to seem fashionable with MacBooks and completely ignore issues like waste or maintainability (even of simple things like battery).

Yes the only reason people use devices you don’t must to be fashionable, of course, that must be it.

Would you be so kind to quote where "only" and "must" came into play? Thanks kind Sir!

As far as physical size goes, I use the Palm Phone:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_(companion)

https://palm.com/cdn/shop/products/Palm_inHand_1024x1024_2x_...

Despite its marketing, I do not use it as a companion phone, it is my sole mobile device.

It's an Android phone with a 3.3" 720p screen. It's very light (2.2 oz. / 62.5g) and fits in my pocket easily. I can also effortlessly swipe-type on the bottom of my screen and swipe-gesture from the top of my screen with just one hand.

It doesn't have that irritating yellow/green light that tells me when I've missed notifications, although I have most notifications disabled, including voicemails. To my delight, even that presidential alert test did not seem to reach my phone. I also have a great excuse for not installing corporate software on my phone (literally unsupported in many cases).

But it is a device from 2018 and sadly they do not seem to be interested in making a new one. I don't need it to do anything it didn't do when I first got it, but sadly, software companies specialize in making consumer UIs slower and updates in general are no longer an optional thing, so they have no incentive to improve. Even loading my texts, answering my phone, and checking my email is becoming noticeably slower (and it is not an old battery issue as I have replaced a broken Palm phone within the last 12 months).

I'm not sure what I'll replace it with when it becomes impossible to use. The Unihertz form factors are strictly worse, smaller screens with bigger phones. Hoping someone comes up with something similar within a few years.

Looks similar to the Jelly2, which is what I have (https://www.unihertz.com/products/jelly-2).

My biggest lament is that many websites (esp. things like TV show wikis) are unusable on the small screen because of how many banners and ads pop up to obscure content. Other than that, it's a pretty great phone. I like that it has an IR transmitter so I can control my TV volume and such without the remote.

The Palm Phone has a higher resolution and an extra ⅓" diagonal, so it's a bit easier to browse the web size-wise (although it has only half the memory). Of course, things Youtube or Instagram are hopeless, but I consider that a feature, I just tell people they won't load on my phone lol

>TV show wikis

TV wikis are a challenge to use even on a PC if they are hosted on fandom.com :P

I see a number of responses about "I want less". I come at this from a different angle: I have been around. Like, a fair bit. Lived on a tropical island, transited the Arctic by ship, multiple multi-month stints away from wife and kids. I just submitted my travel estimate for this quarter, I have 9 trips. This quarter. And that's with pruning.

Every time I go somewhere, something breaks. Not the machine, but some element of VPN, satcom, everything (i.e. no network, and definitely no internet), latency is insane, bandwidth is trash, whatever. I responded to Fukushima and my Cr-48 (the original chromebook for beta testers) became bookend despite having wifi and built-in 3G.

I know my life is better with the machines and the networks. I mean, I have tested and lived that too many times. But there's definitely some (a lot of) love-hate in the relationship.

My cr48 did not have built-in 3G.

I’ve been ‘going retro’ for years now with my cameras, but I remain on the cutting edge of my computing devices.

I lease an iPhone, which means I get to replace it every year. I upgrade my Apple Watch every two years.

My personal laptop is currently an M1 MacBook Air. I’ll probably try to run it into the ground, but my upgrade cycle will be determined by when it no longer allows me to work effectively.

Meanwhile, the newest dedicated camera I use is a digital mirrorless Fuji that I bought in 2016. I also regularly use a 35mm SLR, medium format SLR, 4x5, and 8x10 that range in age from 20 years old to 70 years old.

Pick technology that allows you to work effectively. If you can do that on some six year old tablet, then Godspeed. I can’t imagine working on a slow computer, but I also don’t understand the point of buying the latest and greatest Sony full frame mirrorless camera.

About the Apple Watch... I have an Apple Watch Series 3 at the moment. You seem to upgrade your watch much more frequently than I'd do. Could you give me an idea what gets significantly better at each upgrade?

(not trying to criticize your choices: I checked the current models and did not find anything particularly compelling for my use cases... but I wonder if I am maybe missing something without realizing)

My plan is to keep my 2016 iPhone 5s for 10 years. It just work perfectly still. It adds friction, but I can do all I need to do. The battery being busted force me to be mindful with my usage on the go. ( and have a battery pack just in case I need a 3am Uber ride )

I’m not. Downsizing or going retro that is.

I buy what I need to run and operate my life and business.

But only that.

I try to avoid buying extra things because I want to treat myself or because I mistakenly believe it might make me happy for more than a moment!

Curiously I get the same feelings from investing and making trades that I do from purchasing items!

So when I think I might buy something, I just invest that money instead! Even small amounts of money!

But no, not downsizing or going retro anything. Instead of denying myself things or time with my iPhone, I do other things instead.

It’s not about what I do, it’s about what I’m not doing!

And if I’m not doing enough of the positive things that are good for my mental health, then there is a problem.

Denying myself my iPhone doesn’t fix my underlying problem. Problems are fixed by positive actions.

YMMV :-)

I don't upgrade my phone every year but I do upgrade them whenever updates stop or whenever they're not working well. I don't think this is striking some big blow against the Man though. I'm in the system just like everyone else.

I've gone from a hefty gaming & work desktop, to an integrated GPU desktop, to an M1 MBP + Steam Deck.

The first goal was reducing power consumption - cheaper than buying more inverters and batteries during constant and extensive power cuts here in South Africa. The M1 at the time was still IME the only game in town in terms of workhorse machine that could last 4-6 hours on battery while doing work.

The second goal was to have a hard separator for work & play.

I wrote a piece about all of this last year: https://nikspyratos.bearblog.dev/hardware-essentialism-my-we...

Did you ever happen to put a watt meter on the gaming setup to see what the power draw was? The M1's are a lot better with power consumption, though my biggest users of power tend to be my large monitors.....

I just put inverter/battery/solar system in my house in ZA and since you can get a 5KW battery for roughly 25,000 Rand which would run a beefy machine for over a long time the numbers might change if you were in that circumstance. If you're a renter, or in a condo etc. those numbers would be different.

....all of that being said, there are a lot of other pluses to having the M1 and I love the M2 that I currently have.

I just bought a 5 year old rugged Dell laptop on eBay for $50. Why would I pay a premium price for the top of the line laptop nowadays unless I was a game developer or my work is buying me a new laptop?

Just to be one more data point, I wouldn’t say I am downsizing but instead just not adding new devices to the mix unless they have an explicit purpose or something else breaks. Laptop from 6 years ago is still going strong, desktop got a GPU upgrade a few years ago and should be good to go for gaming for at least the next 5 years. My old iPhone 8 got replaced with an iPhone 13 because the battery couldn’t hold a charge, I don’t expect to replace this iPhone for at least 3-4 years though, maybe longer.

Recently repaired the drive in my 2nd gen iPod (FireWire 400) and I'm loving it. It's so purposeful. It only does one thing.

Do I need an old Mac mini just to sync music to it? Yes. Is it worth it? Also yes.

There is something lost in ultra-reliable modern tech. Computers that would boot with a random driver suddenly failing or package missing would be annoying in the moment, but also a rewarding opportunity to fix.

These quirks gave old tech an organic flair, like an old Italian car. Like, let's see if this thing will start today.

When I shopped for a new watch two years ago, I was looking for a simple non-smart, easy to use, robust watch that didn't have a ton of features. I ended up getting a Freestyle watch and I have been very satisfied with it.

It tells the time and tells me time elapsed, the light isn't obnoxiously bright at night, I'm not fiddling with the interface, I'm not getting pinged, my data isn't being collected, I'm not afraid of breaking it or soaking it, I'm not charging it.

It just works.

Slightly off topic questions: - You are running Debian 12 on an Android tablet? - Can you specify the tablet specs and what sort of battery life you get out of it?

i think they meant that it's an android tablet, with the app termux with some sort of chrooted environment inside:

https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/Debian

I'm perfectly fine with a 20+ year old Dell computer. It suits (most of) my needs, unless I need to build or compile even a medium sized project, then it's torturous.

Admittedly, some websites are simply too slow but I don't often visit those, and it's probably one of the reasons I prefer sites like HN.

Though, I can't honestly claim to be (intentionally) downsizing or "going retro". Maybe I've just become something retro. ;-)

Well not exactly downsizing on my part... BUT my "daily driver" Laptop is an Thinkpad R60 i bought for very cheap a long time ago and my Desktop at home is an old Compaq dc7800 (Core 2 Quad, 8 GB RAM) that i salvaged from electronic waste and got back running. So far, that is much more computing power than i really need, so absolutely no interest in upgrading anytime soon.

Why would I want to do that? With ever-changing technology, keeping yourself intentionally behind will probably hurt your future job prospects. You won't be able to relate to younger employees (which helps pass interviews) and many companies utilize new technology like phones.

I've gotten lots of my experience not on the job, but just playing around with technology in my free time.

I'm not going retro, but I refuse to buy new things until old ones works. I'm also not comfortable to use things that are not repairable and software that tells me how to do things. I love technology when it serves for my needs, not when I serves for tech.

No IoT, no modern car, no gadgets, minimum to none proprietary software, wood heating, no TV...

Just bought an unopened, unlocked LG-H918 phone on eBay for $100 and change. Replaceable battery is what I wanted and 4G-LTE is fast enough for my needs. Probably won't need to change phones until 4G is sunset.

It took a full Saturday to download all the Android updates and for T-Mobile to recognize my old SIM card in there to let me make calls.

The battery in the box was so old, it didn't hold a charge very well. I wonder if I can recondition it somehow.

I just continued to use my old LG-H918's battery which I bought fresh a few months ago.

I had to give up on my LG-H918, I started to have problems with VoLTE in Midtown East Manhattan, phone calls got bad to impossible and I didn't like using Google Voice. I miss the battery and audio quality.

I've dropped my desktop machine and homelab (aka old desktops and rpis) and gone with an M1 air and a NAS. I still have my monitor and mouse but no keyboard.

I'm old enough don't have the time nor patience to deal with slow hardware and will just upgrade if I need to (old stuff gets sold/donated, I don't keep it around).

Going to try switching my phone to my Librem 5 this January. It’s been sitting in the box for a year. I already started contributing to some FOSS Qt projects so it should be easy to jump in and help develop things like Plasma Mobile.

It will upset some family members and their precious blue txt bubbles but I don’t care.

If you have access to a Mac to periodically regenerate the keys, you could use Beeper's iMessage bridge. Maybe it's better in the end to ween them off it though ...

Nah, I’m not a whiny person who cares about first world problems like bubble color.

I'll actually increase my devices as I go forward. I am looking to buy a white noise machine, a video door bell, security cams for my perimeter. Suggestions for the doorbell and cams welcome.

My phone is about 6 years old now so I might get a new one towards the end of the year depending on how it performs.

this was the first year that i didn't partake in upgrading my iPhone in many years because the iPhone 13 mini was discontinued without a replacement.

i had a mac mini and an ipad pro that i used to remote into it and do work from. i ended up combining the two by getting a macbook air m2. amazing device.

I would like to downsize my tower but GPU and Water Cooling takes space. There is a 5-10C degree difference between an air cooler and a good AIO.

As for Phone I use grapheneOS, and upgrade once it drops out of support cycle (previously 4a 5G, now 7a).

I have a Steam Deck and that's all my smart devices.

Sadly batteries in these kind of devices don't survive time well. I just got an iPod Nano 4th generation for gym/cardio for less distraction and a healthy dose of nostalgia.

But at my company Rootly we let employees upgrade laptops at will as needed, no questions asked!

I'm a bit confused how eschewing desktops in favour of tablets is a "retro" move?

They're older?

I am using a x201 from 2011 and a Huawei P20 lite from 2018.

Both have replaced batteries, the x201 got a battery replacement sometime in 2017 and the P20 lite had its battery replaced and ports cleaned a couple months ago.

Both still work great I don't want to upgrade.

I’m still on my iPhone 6 and have no plans to upgrade.

Also, I’d never get a smartwatch. Casio is way cooler.

> and now I've progressed to an iPad Mini 6 and a 2018 Android Tablet with Termux and Debian 12

Do you do most of your work "in the cloud"? If so, did you really downsize, or did you just outsource to someone else's modern computer?

I bought my wife the best compact phone still available, the Chinese Cubot KingKong Mini 3 for 150, and we love it. Sony and Apple have none of their great compact phones available anymore. Hands are not getting bigger for a while.

My most recent computer was an M2 Macbook Air, previously I had used a MSFT Surface since 2013. I've had a desktop that I've upgraded over the years. I bought my last iPhone in 2019, and it's still going strong.

Recently repaired the drive in my 2nd gen iPod (FireWire 400) and I'm loving it. It's so purposeful. It only does one thing.

Do I need an old Mac mini just to sync music to it? Yes. Is it worth it? Also yes.

Dumbphone + automatic watch.

what is an automatic watch?

It’s a watch with an automatic movement: clockwork that is wound by movement of the wrist, as opposed to a battery or a winder.

An automatic watch is “self-winding” but fully mechanical.

I have no cell phone (never have), and use an ancient Thinkpad.

I was on my iPhone 7 until last year when it couldn't open banking apps anymore. Literally the best phone format ever. If only battery lasted a few more hours.

I consistently buy $45 laptops at pawn shops, and run various flavours of linux on them. Recently tried mint.

No, I’m not. Why would I want to use old things that work OK when I can use new things that work really well?

To opt out of the relentless churn and over-production that is driving climate change and inequity?

Bruh the climate ship has sailed. Using a 5 year old phone isn’t going to make a lick of difference.

Here’s the things I do in my life: I’ve never driven a car, don’t fly, live in a small apartment, don’t eat meat, and don’t have kids. Those things don’t make a lick of difference either, to be fair.

And inequity has only been around since the dawn of human history, so good luck there.

If _one_ person forgoes buying a new phone, or doesn't fly, or doesn't use a car, it won't make an appreciable difference.

If 100 million people do it, it will.

So ... I applaud both of you.

I will be hanging onto my iPhone 13 Mini for as long as I possibly can.

Less downsizing and more no longer upgrading and buying new shit.

I've never owned a smartphone. I was always ahead of the tech curve in the late 90's and on. Before smartphones, I had a Nokia 770 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_770_Internet_Tablet) around 2008, its basically a wifi internet device. You could connect to any unlocked wifi network and surf the web (back then a lot of people left their wifi open or just used default passwords so it was easy to find free internet in an urban area).

Being aware of all the privacy issues in big tech, I just couldn't bring myself to carrying a smartphone on me at all times. As smartphones became the norm, I was considered crazy for not having one. Now all these years later I am proud of never caving in to the temptation or pressure of those around me.

I love new tech, but I am disgusted by 3rd party software and how intrusive it is

I have reduced my entire tech stack to a clean desk and a MacBook Pro.

No more monitors or microphones or lights or stands. It is so freeing.

Librem 5 phone + Pinephone.

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