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.
Something I’ve been wanting to work on is repairing old analogue electronics and putting those to use, like VCRs and the likes. While I totally get why we’ve moved on from older formats like VHS, I feel tossing that generation of electronics aside when they still work perfectly fine is a bit of an injustice considering how durable a lot of those were made.
Something that’s especially stood out is the old CED format. Have never seen a player despite having seen the discs out and about sometimes, and the ones online never seem to be in working condition.
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
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.
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.
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.
