I’m Obsessed with Crusty Laptops

They say one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. In my case, I’ve become obsessed with laptops that are so past their prime people look at you funny when you say that you have them. I think that every piece of technology is cool for different reasons. The companies that were responsible for creating them put a lot of time in devising what they were all about. When they were knee deep in the planning process, they never expected that the fruits of their labor would become the subject of mockery within a few short years.

The key to dealing with older machines is understanding the purpose they served for the time period in which they were released. You can’t expect a 10 year old laptop to run a game that just came out last week. You have to dig to find out which programs and games were common at the time and see if you can get your hands on those. I get what you’re saying. Why would I go through all the trouble of tracking down ancient programs when I could buy a new machine and run what everyone else is running? Trust me…obsolete machines are not for everyone.

I’ve run into a few roadblocks in my pursuit of the nastiest, dustiest machines the market has to offer. It seems like a few people have cornered the market on these dinosaurs and they only ever appear in the form of auctions that end up with the machine being sold for far more than they’re worth. If I didn’t know any better, I would say that the people who list these machines are secretly bidding on them in an effort to drive up the price. Regardless, I’m continually perplexed as to why machines that are so old that they should have no resale value are being sold for just as much as a bottom of the barrel new netbook.

I would love it if people sent me old laptops for the purpose of content creation. I have been able to get some laptops for free and I plan to write about them in the future. With so many brands out there, I’m intrigued as to the possibilities for content creation. I get that the audience for these posts would be limited. I will create this content for the simple fact that I enjoy it. I hope that other people might enjoy it along the way.

If you have an ancient laptop you would be willing to send me, please email me at allenglines@gmail.com. I will review it and even mention your name (as long as I can get the thing to work).