Anyway. 6 reasons why it's good to keep your old laptop instead of buying a new one.
1. Environmentally sound. Yes, you can sell your old computer (and frankly if it's not obsolete and/or broken, that's probably the best option of all). Given the state of my keyboard, battery, and case, I think I'd have a hard time selling it. I could send it away to be "recycled" but I can't help but picture this:
Environmentally, I'm not sure there's anything wrong with buying a computer, selling it after a year, and buying the new one. (Some people at Macrumors.com report doing this and reselling their year-old computer for not much more than they paid for it, making it a sound decision. Me? I'm too lazy to resell so quickly, and not that interested in having the latest technology. Which leaves me with a computer that's bordering on worthless (it can't even run Kindle software or Google Chrome unless I upgrade to Leopard). So, using this one as long as possible is probably best for the environment.
2. Money. New computers cost money. The cheapest computer is probably the one you have. (Unless you believe time is money, of course. Which leads us to...)
3. Fewer distractions? Since my old computer can't sample everything the Internet has to offer, in theory I might spend more time buckling down and working, since I'm stuck on such a slow computer. (In reality this doesn't seem to pan out. Instead, it takes longer for me to load those distractions... But then the last time I got a new computer because everything on the Internet was loading too slowly, I didn't actually get MORE work done once I had the extra speed...I just had more fun goofing off....)
4. This one's probably good enough. When I consider that my not-very-smart PHONE has better graphics, more storage, probably more RAM, and is overall more useful than the computers I used in elementary school, I feel kind of ungrateful to complain that my computer is not fast enough/can't do quite everything I want it to. When it comes down to it, if I'm just patient with slow speeds (yes, I'm looking at you, NeoOffice), this computer is fine.
5. Much less big picture stress. Sure, it drives me batty when I jostle my computer and it restarts, but until recently, I've held my breath whenever I boot up my laptop after taking it on a trip, just hoping that it will start up. Now, not quite so much. When/if it dies, I will be forced to buy that new one I really do kind of need. (Unless I want to plug in an external keyboard and use this as a desktop.
And of course:
6. Electronics rarely seem to die when you actually want to get rid of them. At least, that's how it's been in my limited experience. Granted, the battery of this had its issues back when I was on the fence as to buying a new MacBook (over a year ago!) but it didn't keep the computer from actually working...
We'll see how long my old MacBook lasts (I'm fixing to get a new laptop by October or so). But even though the "e" key kind of doesn't work, and even though the outer case is cracked many places, I'm really getting the feeling that this computer just won't actually give up and die. Like my 13" CRT TV I bought in 1997....will this laptop stick around forever?
(So what am I waiting for, anyway? Well...mostly, I hate spending money, I suppose. I mean, I'm waiting for all the bugs to get worked out of Lion. Yeah, definitely. That's it. I'm not cheap. :) )
Hilarious!! :)
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