Techtember & Laptops are bad, too

I’ve got an article in a draft state that might not ever see the light of day, as there’s too much of computing history and politics for me in there. To put a potentially long story short, it posits the argument that laptops are closer to video game consoles than personal computers these days, just for work instead of play. Both hardware and increasingly software are locked down.

Which is why I had mixed feelings when I read Andreas Techtember blog post¹. 

The (very) good part:

I think we should make use of 'Techtember', but instead of getting some new crap we don't need, take the opportunity to go over our existing tech stack and get rid of some stuff that has accumulated over the years which we no longer need, and maybe slim down the amount of tech that we use in the first place.

When I look around in my room, there’s soo much tech detritus I don’t use in the average month. Retrocomputing projects I wanted to tackle. Old laptops that still might be of use. And oh so many monitors, more than Andreas bought:

Here's just one example: I started out with that one laptop with a 15 inch screen. A couple of years later I bought a desktop PC and a 22 inch monitor. Then a few more years later I got a 24 inch. Then a 27 inch. Now I have a 34 inch ultrawide monitor that's almost as wide as my desk.

I don’t remember when I bought my first 24 inch monitor, probably 2005. It was a 16:10 Dell monitor that I had shipped from the UK, as that was allover cheaper than buying it local². It’s still in service, my mom uses it these days. And to be honest, if it landed on my desktop today, I’d be perfectly fine with it.

The 27 inch I replaced it with had a worse video quality, and was ditched during a move. I also bought a few 4:3 monitors, as I really liked that format. This isn’t quite retrocomputing, one of them is one of the better IPS displays ever available for that format, and one is a medical display with a rather rare high resolution. Then there’s the 1280×1024 display with the very low power usage that I bought when I thought I’d optimise for that, and the actual yellowed retrocomputing screen. Plus the two 2.5k screens I thought would work perfectly as a dual monitor setup, and now the widescreen one when I found that it didn’t, but wouldn’t mind half the extra screen estate.

This mixture of looking for more unusual stuff and cheapening out on the high end is mirrored with retro tech & laptops here in this small room. So I definitely understand Andreas’ quest on a personal level, and of course there’s the “societal” point of view, too.

Phenomenal computing power, itty bitty viewing space #

But then he loses me a bit:

But do I really need this huge ass monitor on my desk? Am I happier than I was with the one 15 inch screen? […]

Maybe it's time to get rid of the big monitor and go back to a smaller one again. One that doesn't scream "I am the most important item in this room", but one that's just enough for what I need. And do that for some other things as well that are sitting around unused, or that are way too overblown for my actual needs.

Paige Andreas, no! I know that theoretically you can fit anything on a 15 inch laptop monitor. They might have the same resolution as your much bigger screen, maybe even more. And we also could put stamps in museums instead of the much bigger items, potentially saving a lot of money.

But seriously, your eyes aren’t getting younger. While I’m not one of those people who need 4K/retina for everything³, not having to squint when you’re looking at images or smaller text is good, ask your doctor. It also leads to less “desktop” web pages with insanely huge fonts…

What I’ve personally also noted is that I make better use of the screen real estate. I don’t fullscreen apps on a sufficiently large screen, but that’s harder to do on sub-17-inch devices.

And finally, a good monitor will stay while devices go, either temporarily (work 

Almost any monitor is “just enough”. I probably could do most of my work on a 1024×768 screen, if it’s large enough. Good pixel font for coding, half-page zoom for print products. But is this a good application of “digital minimalism” or whatever we’re calling it these days?

I don’t like them fancy new machines… #

Of course, one of the reasons for sticking with a 15 inch screen is because it’s attached to a computer. So it’s the ultimate reduction in tech: One device for everything.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying anyone is wrong in doing that, who am I to pass judgement upon those suffering from hardware acquisition syndrome? It just brings to the forefront how common those horrible machines have become. I might be a bit older, so starting with a laptop never was in the cards for me.

I spent a lot of time building “IBM compatible” PCs, where you often end up in a Ship of Theseus situation, replacing components bit by bit. Sometimes hardware incompatibilities might accumulate enough that you’re doing something from scratch, but more often you replace one or two components.

But that just means you’ve got more superfluous bits and parts lying around. Well, sure. Although I’d dare say that it’s easier to get rid of the old memory sticks you replaced with a newer set–both to throw away or resell–than doing the same for a new laptop. If you’ve kept it around for longer than usual (2–3 years, according to corps and taxes), it might not be acceptable for a lot of other people because something is “wrong” with it–display technology might be more advanced, it’s missing that one new USB-X port, Windows ST⁴ might not support it… But dare you throw it away? No, welcome to the stack. Maybe you’ll turn it into a NAS?

These days it’s also more likely that you get a laptop from your employer, if you’re in the tech industry. So there’s a bigger contrast here, your desktop system that you’re free to modify and upgrade, compared to the super-slim planned obsolescence device you can bring to meetings.

And to be honest, the occasional upgrade might be enough to satisfy the urges of just tinkering, which might lessen the need to keep that other laptop or ancient desktop around, for that project that might never happen…

Back to the main program #

So after the long aside about why I think desktops are neat, let’s get back to the main topic: Getting rid of old tech. 

It’s a great idea! And boy, do I need it. But what?

Let’s eke some blog posts out of this! During actual September, I’ll try to post an item I’ve got in my tiny room and then see if it “sparks joy”. This might end up in a lot of justifications why I actually do see some future for that barely working Thinkpad, but it also could mean that I’ll be able to become a bit less of a hoarder…

Links #

• The original Techtember post by Andreas.

• Ruben Schade might get on the tech-trash-train, too!