this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2025
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Ask Solarpunk

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I've wondered this for a while now. I personally don't upgrade until a machine fails or seems like it is about to fail, but aren't there people who upgrade to a new laptop just to have the latest thing or because they want to run some non-free software with arbitrarily high hardware requirements? What happens to these still-working laptops that people replace? Not everyone is enough of a nerd to repurpose an old laptop as a file server or similar, so do people stuff them in a closet and forget about them, or do these machines become electronic waste? It seems like there must be a lot of these machines that could go to someone who could use one. Is there any sort of online or in-person place for donating laptops and other electronics? I know that recycling facilities exist in some places, and I know that there are secondhand stores, but what about somewhere to just give away machines that are no longer needed, or to sell them for only the cost of shipping? This seems important, but I've never seen such a thing. Does anyone here know of something like this?

(A bit of a ramble, but that's how the words formed.)

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[–] solo@slrpnk.net 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

The following ideas are not exactly what you ask for, but maybe they are worth considering?

  1. I don't know what operating system you use, but for me old computers is how I got into linux. Linux Mint is very easy to install and to use, so it prolongs the life of perfectly good machines that are too old to be updated by proprietary software. Personally, I was doing most updates so that the laptop is as functional as possible for the longest time, and I was always doing the secuity ones. A few years back a friend gave me a 2006 laptop and it worked kind of ok with an old version of mint, it was just very slow. This one was given to another friend who didn't have any.

  2. Depending on where you live there could be a makerspace, or a relevant collective that could use them, or parts of them.

  3. If they are not working anymore, you can use the parts to do crafts: jewleries, pins, fridge magnets, keychains, light fixture, wall decoration, photo frame, book holder are a few possibilities.

[–] Yaky@slrpnk.net 3 points 5 days ago

For makerspaces, old laptops and smartphones can run octoprint for remotely controlling 3D printers.