Ask HN: What do you do with your older hardware?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29780906

by sys_64738 • 5 years ago

28 54 5 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I have a 2010 Mac mini which I used to use for streaming but it has been retired over Christmas. It's a bit slower video wise so while I could use it for Linux I have other HW. It will probably end up in a cupboard but what other options are there for it? What do HN folks do with their retired hardware?

markus_zhang• 5 years ago

I turned a 4gb lenovo pad into a ubuntu box to learn spark a while ago. Didn't get very far but the exp was good.

I also have a powerbook that I purchased from ebay but running xcode seems to be too slow so not sure what to do.

cameron_b• 5 years ago

When I was in college I remember some fellow students being overjoyed to find quality older hardware on Offerup, in order to keep up with the schoolwork we were learning, and practice on their own.

I personally find that Mac hardware holds its utility far beyond its value, and that's even recognizing that most Mac products hold value in the second-hand market.

I saw a Mac Pro 5.1 ( same generation as your mini ) on craigslist recently, refurbished, but selling for four figures.

southerntofu• 5 years ago

I personally find that Mac hardware holds its utility far beyond its value

I've often seen broken Macbooks and iMacs (mostly issues with screen or hinges) in the hackerspaces i've visited. Maybe it's a selection bias where the functioning hardware is resold not donated, but it doesn't exactly inspire me confidence.

It's not specific to Apple though, modern day Thinkpads are just as "bad" (but the older IBM ones will probably outlive us all).

convolvatron• 5 years ago

its getting pretty hard to run OSX that far back. does anyone have any recommendations for an open operating system to put on them? freebsd used to work ok, but the page that tracks it hasn't been updated in a decade.

woleium• 5 years ago

I have Ubuntu running on a 12 year old MacBook Air. everything works, webcam included, although it's a bit of a pain to get it going, you have to extract a key from m the hardware and compile a binary after setting it in the source.

ivan_ah• 5 years ago

I was just looking into this today, and I found that https://elementary.io/ is the most popular Mac OS lookalike. It's based on Ubuntu under the hood, but I need the look and feel to be similar to what the users are familiar with.

I haven't installed/tried yet, but it looks promising. I can report updates here if you're interested.

taubek2• 5 years ago

Once I no longer need my computer I try to donate it to someone. There are some charities that will fix/upgrade them and give them to someone else.

I like the reuse concept (as a general rule I buy refurbished equipment when ever I can) so if you don't need it any longer, maybe someone else would find it useful?

derwiki• 5 years ago

Do you securely wipe the hard drive before donating?

taubek2• 5 years ago

Yes, I do. I use some safe delete method (built in OS commands, wipe from BIOS, DBAN, etc.) depending on the OS and hard disk type that I was running on the computer.

theandrewbailey• 5 years ago

I have an old desktop in my basement that I use as a server (web, database, NAS, music, pihole). After that, I try to find someone I know who could use old but working parts and systems and give it to them; otherwise I drop off at second-hand charity stores.

toomuchtodo• 5 years ago

Recycle it. The cost decline and power curve doesn’t make sense to keep antiques.

thrower123• 5 years ago

I have a whole shelf of broken laptops, obsolete monitors, junked hard drives, etc, that will probably still be there when I die and my heirs have to clean out my house.

kwhitefoot2• 5 years ago

That's a waste. Just take a few pictures and put it on Ebay or some local equivalent.

tedyoung• 5 years ago

Same, though every year I'm able to part with some of the truly dead pieces of equipment at the recycling center. Those old hard drives pile up, though. But now I've got half a dozen broken laptops—which have awesome screens that I wish I could use.

sys_647382• 5 years ago

I had about 30 dead hard drives so I eventually got round to drilling half a dozen 0.5" holes in each then tossing. I think that got me over my paranoia phase dating back to the 1990s.

wing-_-nuts• 5 years ago

Piggybacking on this, but what's everyone doing with their 3g phones? My family has like 5 of them that will supposedly no longer have service in '22. Can we donate these somewhere? The newer ones can still install android apps, send and receive email, etc. I thought about donating them to a shelter but I'm not sure if they'd have a use for them.

ugjka• 5 years ago

I'm thinking of turning my old phones into webcams

rob74• 5 years ago

I'm using an old Android phone (Moto X) as a "two-factor security dongle", i.e. I have the M$ Authenticator app installed on it for VPN and Exchange access from home office - unlike my "regular" mobile phone, which I may forget to take with me while I'm at home, it's on my desk the whole time...

Scoundreller• 5 years ago

Just throw them on eBay and some intelligent broker will harvest them for parts or ship them off to the part of the world that still uses 3G and values them the most.

tablespoon• 5 years ago

Piggybacking on this, but what's everyone doing with their 3g phones? My family has like 5 of them that will supposedly no longer have service in '22. Can we donate these somewhere? The newer ones can still install android apps, send and receive email, etc. I thought about donating them to a shelter but I'm not sure if they'd have a use for them.

What would a homeless person do with a phone that can't connect to a cellular network?

Obsolete tech eventually becomes practically useless, even if it "still works." At this point, I'd say 3G phones are a (very small) white elephant, mainly only useful for weird hobbyist stuff or quirky retrocomputing.

I knew a refugee who was given a 68k Mac laptop in about 2003, it was more of a burden than anything. It was impossible to get online with anything close to a then-modern browser (IIRC, too little memory). It made a lot more sense for him to just use one of the computer labs.

luke2m• 5 years ago

Security cameras.

dsr_• 5 years ago

Download a bunch of MP3s that you don't like, get cheap long USB cords, and set them up as programmable musical alarm clocks.

(Why music that you don't like? Because any music that forces you to wake up will eventually become music you don't like.)

Eric_WVGG• 5 years ago

FreeGeek is a shop in PDX that takes donations of old computers and turns them into new computers. I wish every city had one. https://www.freegeek.org/

csw-001• 5 years ago

I run iPfire on an old MacBook for home network security, ad filteting, etc. Been really happy with the results.

svec• 5 years ago

I offer old hardware to local charities that reuse/recycle it, or on a “buy nothing” Facebook group where people will almost always take it and (hopefully) make better use of it than I will.

behohippy• 5 years ago

My older stuff got turned into TV PCs. I pair them up with a Logitech K400 wireless keyboard and just run Chrome or Firefox on them. Each tab is a different streaming service, plex or youtube. I could use Chromecast or FireTV, but they feel like less freedom than just running a browser.

aninteger• 5 years ago

1. The same thing we do with Raspberry Pi's

2. Retro gaming / retro development, which given the age of something often means C or C++.

3. If things are really broken, e-waste is probably the only option.

dangus• 5 years ago

I eBay them, even if I get basically nothing for the sale. If someone else wants it, they're using it for something.

The last thing I want is to be an accumulator of stuff, so ending up in a cupboard is not an option.

dustymcp• 5 years ago

Building servers or gifting working parts away to community/friends etc.

kernelPan1c• 5 years ago

I've taken my stack of old laptops and created a microk8s cluster out of them for the purpose of self-hosting random stuff.

avgDev• 5 years ago

Are you hosting stuff that you can access from outside of your local network? I was always a bit concerned about allowing outside traffic since I don't feel like managing security.

agentultra• 5 years ago

I have a frankencloud of old re-purposed laptops that have become firewalls, storage servers, build servers, and VM hosts to run scripts and bits of automation.

I donate excess computers I don't need anymore that are in serviceable condition to local charities: there are lots of under-served communities that need laptops and routers and modems in this day and age with remote learning during lockdowns, etc.

The rest I try to tear down for useable parts (to keep the frankencloud running) and the rest I recycle as best I can.

gjsman-1000• 5 years ago

To be fully honest... I recycle them if none of the family wants.

My family's previous retired laptops were 2 old HP Core i3 4th gen models. With 1366x768 15" screens, one of which was cracked. One would blue-screened randomly after a few hours even with a OS reinstall. I stripped them down and sold the motherboard and RAM of the non-blue-screening one on eBay and made about $80.

The rest was recycled because, what would I do with them? If I wanted a Plex server, a Raspberry Pi 4 is powerful enough for most things that don't need transcoding, and consumes far less power and physical space (laptop motherboards are not very space efficient for a server unless you got a super long and thin case for them).

rvieira• 5 years ago

Not a functional advice (my old laptops still all serve the same function), but:

I'm using Apple since 2014 and realised I've gathered quite stack of old Macs (one Macbook Air, one MBP and one iMac). I've installed Linux in all of them for the heck of it and its quite a welcome break for macOS.

I try use the old Macbook Air only as a thin client (tiling window manager and most TUI applications for IRC, email, coding, remote admin, etc).

jmbwell• 5 years ago

In Texas (dunno about elsewhere), Goodwill has "Computer Works" stores that take older equipment in working or mostly-working condition. They assemble systems from donated components and sell them for pretty good prices. Behind the scenes, I gather it's a training opportunity. What can't be fixed or cobbled together and sold, gets donated onward, recycled, or disposed. I take all my old systems there, and I check in the shop from time to time. I've picked up all kinds of stuff... full-size racks, HP servers, oddball adapter cards, vintage stuff.

SocksOnHawks• 5 years ago

If there's nothing worse selling inside it, I'll just use the hard drive for storage or try out attacks on it

kwhitefoot2• 5 years ago

I sell them or give them away on website, https://www.finn.no/, a bit like Ebay.

Pretty much any functioning laptop will find a buyer if it is capable of running a modern web browser and in many cases there are enthusiasts willing to take hardware that can't even do that.

Over the past couple of years I have sold hundreds of bits of old computers ranging in age from five years old to 25 years old. Everything from ThinkPads to 20 year old power supplies taken from scrapped Compaq desktops and all the components in between including tape drives, DEC terminals, etc.

I also sold a non-functioning Quad 303 power amp for 1000 NOK (112 USD). Could perhaps have got more for it but as it hadn't cost me anything and it had been waiting for repair for over ten years it was a good price.

Someone will want your Mac mini, they just need to be able to find it. Put it on Ebay, Gumtree, Craigslist, Finn.no, or whatever your locality has.

gigatexal• 5 years ago

Older laptops I throw Ubuntu LTS on and give to those in need.

Older desktops -- if not noisy gaming PCs -- become servers or get harvested for parts to bolster an existing one, otherwise they get donated or recycled.

chrisseaton• 5 years ago

Sell it back to Apple, or recycle it through them. They're best placed to recycle it as they know all the components and materials. Anyone else recycling it will probably just ship it to another country to go into landfill.

bellyfullofbac• 5 years ago

Their propaganda^W PR fluff about the weight of gold recycled from iPhones has a line that triggered my bullshit alarm: "2204 lbs of gold" [1]. This has been regurgitated by news media[2] as "more than 2204 lbs of gold" without them doing any more fact-checking.

1000 kg is 2204.62262[...] lbs. For them to put the exact number "2204" smells like someone told them "about 1000kg of gold" and whoever wrote that report just converted that to "2204 lbs". And since it's a rounding down, they can claim "More than 2204 lbs". Apple not knowing how significant figures work and giving out a number that was probably a guess to be an exact figure? That's why the alarm I mentioned above got triggered.

[1] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/apple-ton-of-gold-recycling_n... has a link to Apple's PDF: http://images.apple.com/environment/pdf/Apple_Environmental_... where you can search for "2204".

[2] https://duckduckgo.com/?q=apple+2204+lbs+of+gold

juliend2• 5 years ago

I duck-taped an old iPhone on the wall, to always show the weather app. Always-on, no sleep mode.

It's right next to the wardrobe. Which is pretty useful during the winter in Montreal.

GrumpyNl• 5 years ago

I smash nails through the hds and give away whats usable to friends and family. I upgrade my main hardware at least every three years.

donclark• 5 years ago

I have taken old phones, towers and laptops to the local thrift store. They might be good for a child to use/play on?

Veritio• 5 years ago

eBay if: It is still relatives new and still worth a lot.

If I have the feeling that someone else might find it useful.

Recycling: If it had sensitive data on it and cleaning it up is not worth it at all like small and old hard drives or old and slow USB stick.

Gifting:

If I have the feeling that it would help. Like a laptop which is old but not too old for normal daily use. I will clean it, fix it and search for someone to gift it.

I do try to do something with those things fast as it only makes it less useful longer I wait.

It also annoys you when it is inconvenient like when you move and find all of the old stuff. Or you lost that space for ages and then you throw it out anyway.

politelemon• 5 years ago

I give them away on trashnothing.com

littlecranky673• 5 years ago

By coincidence I just asked myself the same question and made it my holidays project. I installed El Capitan on my mid-2014 MBP (it does support Big Sur but it was unbearably slow & laggy and battery runtime was not good), and it seems a 2010 mac mini should be capable to run El Capitan too.

Why El Capitan? Because the most current Chrome requires El Capitan (Mavericks does not work). Actually I use ungoogled-chromium. While it might seem super dangerous to connect to the internet because of security, I took some measures:

On my Router (Fritzbox, but any other quality router will do):

- Isolate that device to "Guest" WiFi so it can only connect to the internet, not other devices in my LAN (works by Mac Address Filtering)

- Do not allow unknown MAC Addresses to connect to WiFi at all for all my home network

- Only allow outgoing ports 80/443 TCP and 53 UDP on the Mac, refuse all incoming connections (its NAT anyway but just to be sure)

- Disable UPnP for that device

When using the device:

- Never use ANY login/private data on that device (see exceptions below)

- Never enter any private data, so no social media, email, iCloud etc. just plain surfing

- I strictly only use AirDrop from my modern Mac or a readonly SDcard to copy files ONTO it (Movies, Music, Ebooks, Podcasts), never download or copy the other way around.

- The only Applications I installed are ungoogled-chromium (plus ublock origin) and VLC

I use it to watch (offline) movies, music podcasts and sometimes Netflix. Additionally I connect my E-Piano with a piano learning website to it over USB (Benefit is I can use GarageBand instrument library with it). For those two websites the passwords are strictly unique. When not in use, I always do a full shutdown (no sleep).

I know that a super-dedicated and driven hacker might - with lots of work - use the device as attack vector, but I mostly think this is a highly unlikely event. Especially since it is way easier to compromise servers with log4shell right now :)

Edit: Btw it is super easy to downgrade, just hold CMD+Option+Shift+R on powerup, and the internet recovery will install the macOS version the device shipped with. Then go to https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211683 and download the full OS as a simple .pkg file on another machine, copy to SDcard and start installation.

Wowfunhappy• 5 years ago

Why El Capitan? Because the most current Chrome requires El Capitan (Mavericks does not work).

https://github.com/blueboxd/chromium-legacy

Runs beautifully on Mavericks.

Install it via my preference pane and you'll even get automatic updates: https://github.com/blueboxd/chromium-legacy/discussions/25

littlecranky673• 5 years ago

Nice, didn't know that. Then if I were to do it again, I would use Yosemite, because AirDrop only still works with newer Macs starting from Yosemite upwards. However El Capitan runs fine, everything is smooth and battery is up to 6h (I had the battery replace in 2018 and upgraded 1.5years later to a newer MBP).

sys_647382• 5 years ago

I run Monterey on my 2014 MBP and it runs super fast so not sure of your issue. I installed Catalina on the 2010 Mini which also works well but I've moved on from Catalina which is why this system is EOL for me.

littlecranky673• 5 years ago

well it's unfortunately the smallest CPU available at that time. And I also noticed it after upgrading to Big Sur, especially the battery issue.

xwolfi• 5 years ago

I put it in the trash and forget about it. Recycling is too hard and probably will cost more to end up in the same landfill, nobody really need yet another aging piece of hardware, and I don't need money especially if I need to spend time trying to find buyers.

I wouldn't mind giving it, but it's not something people do much here, and I'd rather pay taxes to organize rather than pay some religious charity who would help people only if they give their soul in exchange.

I have thrown very little hardware the last 10 years, because I buy long term, have small desires, don't buy MACs or anything that has to follow some sort of replacement fashion (but that's why my stuff wouldnt have much resell value anyway), or it's hard drive, and I dont dare throwing away hard drives here in China hehehe. I have a full 4x2TB and 4x10TB set of NAS hardrives that I had to keep in store when I moved to 4x18TB (Ultrastar <3), that's probably the only thing I have to find what to do with now.

Video cards, I change when they break, and do throw them away: I'm at my 3rd top-end NVidia, since 2010. Switching from cheap craps to very expensive video cards is probably the biggest source of savings I've ever done hardware-wise. Instead of having a litany of time wasting problems, immediate obsolescence and replacement every year or so, I can just drive the card until it short-circuit and never have to compromise. They do short-circuit at regular interval, interestingly.

nsainaney• 5 years ago

I generally take old Macs to the Apple Store. They remove the drive and recycle the rest of the hardware.

Funkhauser• 5 years ago

I use my mid-2010 Mac mini as a Plex server at home, works quite well!

darksofa• 5 years ago

Best Buy will take ewaste.

Ask HN: What do you do with your older hardware?

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