Something I’ve been working on recently is collecting old and unused laptops from various people I know. Sometimes they’re shitty Chromebooks that can barely be used but sometimes they’re still perfectly good and recent laptops and people just got bored of them and decided to upgrade for whatever reason. I then put Linux on these laptops (even the shitty chromebooks) and distribute them to people at my college who need one.
With the date that Microsoft is stopping support for windows 10 approaching quickly, now’s a great time to prevent e-waste by upgrading to Linux or collecting people’s previous laptops as they upgrade. You can also get distributions that run better than windows on low-end hardware. Even if you don’t know someone who needs a laptop, you can always do something like host a Minecraft server to make use of it.
Also, you can do this to phones too. There are plenty of custom ROMs you can load on Android phones to squeeze more life out of them. Let me know if you want recommendations.
Anyway, I hope that this can inspire more people to try and repurpose electronics to prevent them from becoming e-waste.
Thanks for this, and the repost of postmarket OSes for Android phones! One reddit community that I used to frequent was r/androidafterlife, and I’ve tried to find similar here. I’m glad that !zerowaste@slrpnk.net offers some of the same advice 👍
I did this too with a few laptops. Rule of thumb is, that if it runs Windows already decently, it will behave like a racing car under any distro/ DE.
Those special “low-spec” distros often look outdated and aren’t as much as a joy to use. I would recommend trying something with Gnome, Cinnamon or KDE first, and if it doesn’t run smoothly, then try something else.
Good distros for newcomers are Mint or Aurora / Bluefin.
The hardest part of using Linux as someone who isn’t tech iterate is the installation part. It’s extremely easy, but many people are afraid of bricking something, which isn’t possible. Installing Linux is way easier than installing Windows. And as long as the new user knows where they can find the browser, they’re good most of the time.
Regarding phones: sadly, this is way harder. Not only are most used phones either damaged or have a bad battery, but most have a locked bootloader, so you can’t install other OSs. This includes most budget phones (Xiaomi, etc.) and Samsung devices.
My trouble is battery health of older phones and laptops. I typically purchase scratch and dents from Dell outlet and for phones wait for the battery to only make it 4hours before it needs a charge.
For devices with bad batteries that aren’t easily replaceable, I just keep them plugged in and either use them like I would a desktop or use it to host stuff. Most laptops will work with the battery removed so long as they are plugged in.
For a phone you still might be able to host stuff, but you could also use it as a primarily storage device.
It’s hard sometimes, I needed a new laptop to get a better CPU for video encoding. I now have my older laptop, which is actually a hand me down, so it’s old, but it’s going to replace my even older laptop that’s running a 2nd gen i3. So that’s going to be the one I will likely bring to an eWaste site as it will no longer serve me. Sure I could keep it around as a spare, you never know, but I really doubt that will happen.
All my laptops are running some form of Linux, except one. That’s used to run turbo tax (I know) as the windows software is typically much more affordable over the website version. So that saves me like $50 each year.
Anyway, eventually I’ll need to toss my old pixel xl as the battery only last about 45 minutes and I think lineage isn’t able to update it, I didn’t check the last few months. I was planning to have it be my kids first tablet, but a battery replacement is around $75 I think… Just seems not worth it.
Assuming that there’s no major issues with your laptop, I recommend that you at least donate your laptop to a thrift store or make a Craigslist listing and give it away to someone who could use it as opposed to putting it in the landfill. You never know who might find it useful.
I put it in an eWaste pile which I hope is sending it off to be “recycled”. There was no saving my palm pre or touchpads.
as others have mentioned the battery health thing is what makes phones difficult. im comfortable working on phones though so i usually offer them to people like “i have a pixel 3a sitting around that you can have for the cost of a battery”. ive also got a 2nd gen kindle laying around that needs a new battery. considering hacking in a smaller cell if i have one. old ereaders usually cant connect to their servers anymore but that doesnt stop you from putting drm free epubs on them over usb
Heh, heh. I didn’t know that people actually bought the books on kindles. It’s ridiculously easy to get any book you want for free on them.
Thats an awesome idea, thanks for sharing!
I have a couple of old Androids I’ve been wondering what to do with, what’s the simplest ROM flash, like what’s the equivalent of installing Linux mint for a phone?
I’d like to start there
Someone just posted this yesterday
Resurrect your old Android phone - aggregated list of 1100+ devices and what OS you can install on them https://slrpnk.net/post/16336190
Thanks!
That’s awesome. I’m gonna cross post it to here.
If they’re Pixel phones GraphneneOS is insanely easy to flash and is the one of most secure ROMs out there. I’ve heard good things about CalyxOS too.
A lot of people speak well of LineageOS, but I have no idea how involved the installation process is. Another option that I’ve heard of is postmarketOS but that’s a lot more complicated to install.
