Who else rocks an old Android device and loves it?

[nickdalzell]

In my 'vintage' collection I have these active devices (all Cellular and working)

1. Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (2012, 3G/HSPA/Wifi)

2. Samsung Galaxy SII (T-Mobile but unlocked, still on original software, as a backup)

3. Pantech Breakout (2011, Verizon, my 'home' phone, Android 2.3 Gingerbread)

4. HTC Thunderbolt (2011, my daily, and my all-time favorite Android! I love Sense on it!)

I really prefer the older ones. The 'modern' ones feel wrong and like downgrades. The UI is boring and clinical, and they remove things that at one point would make any Android fan call blasphemy. Removing headphone jacks, battery removability, SD card slots, the works and still charging a high price. The 'old' devices above feel more like future devices with a beautiful UI, amazing animations, and the tablet has front-firing speakers. FRONT FIRING STEREO SPEAKERS. Today's tablets at best have a few side-firing ones that don't work nearly as well. I also love having my Mass USB Storage back. The amount of hell I dealt with transferring content between my phones or laptop via MTP much less via the 'cloud' which I hate makes me wonder why I didn't 'downgrade' sooner? It's kinda telling when ancient phones feel like upgrades while modern ones feel like downgrades.

Who else either prefers the glory days of Android or rocks an older device they love and refuses to upgrade? That's the beauty of Android, as no apps care if you're on an old Android version or not, and for the most part, will work until they suffer catastrophic hardware failure.

 

[codezer0]

I still use my LG v20, since rooted and running Lineage ROM. That said, I've lately been having some weirdness that, in the wrong context could be very detrimental, either for myself or for work purposes.

To a degree, I think I would have been happy enough with just a v20 but with a 5G radio. Or if Google itself didn't axe every modular phone project itself, one like that that I could upgrade on my own.

Everything since just... sucks. Everything that could have been said good about any sealed battery phone, is instantly negated when the battery is factored in.

I blame both the phone makers that want to ape the iphone buying cycle(s), and the morons that keep chasing fashion. I also blame the carriers for getting so uptight about unlocking people's paid-for phones, to want to only order phones that are effing disposable.

And now I feel like I'm being forced to look for something compliant.

 

[nickdalzell]

I am lucky I never 'got' social media (happy just using forums--like I've done since the glory days of Prodigy Service "Message Boards") so I don't have those apps. My first smartphone was an iPhone 3GS. I was using a Nokia 5185i in 2010! I was perfectly happy with that Nokia--built like a brick, having only what I needed, and I knew the menus inside and out. But the battery had degraded to what amounted to 10 minutes of talk time on a full charge, and no new batteries were being made for a phone from 1996, so at work my boss couldn't get hold of me since the battery was likely dead or dying by lunch. He handed me the 3GS and basically told me to use it or be fired. That was my smartphone intro. I used to think smartphones were the Apple Newton all over again and were 'just a fad'

Boy was I wrong. I was introduced to a UI that was amazing, and this blank black slab would literally turn into a notepad, music player, camera, or calculator with merely a tap! Then I played with cheap budget Androids (and hated every minute of it--as my old posts would attest to--I was expecting iOS fluidity on a system never intended for it--much like expecting Linux to be Windows) but I appreciated Android.

Eventually I got an iPhone 4, only to get the iOS 7 'update' that ruined the UI. I HATE flat design. I went through it in the early DeskMate, Amiga WorkBench era and sure didn't want to go back! Besides, I wanted the phone to be magical like that 3GS. Where tapping an icon would turn it into a radio or camera.

Eventually I got an HTC Thunderbolt on Amazon and have been smitten with that level of amazement again and there ain't no way I'm giving it up. Also, I'm confident that since it never gets updates, I will never again have to repeat that hellscape of iOS 7 or any other 'modern' UX ever again. I've got Linux, Windows Vista and Windows 7 and all of them skeuomorphic. I enjoy whimsy. I just couldn't get used to modern phones. Not only are they all too big but they remove things I figured were Android staples. If I wanted an all-white UI where everything looks the same I'd go back to CP/M, DeskMate, or VisiON.

 

[Milo Williamson]

I rather do fourms like this instead of like Ugh, social media stirr up batcrap though, this way you can leave your mark and walk away from miles on end.

I got rid of my twitter on my cell finally, and just check the emails basically to check up without logging in, and disturbing a firewall or two though, in this city who really knows but ourselves.


On Topic: I still have my Moto edge plus, it still rocks, I have not tried anything on it but far as like Janurary it still works pretty much like an amazing cell it was. One day it is going to be my back up cell too..

 

[ocnbrze]

nope note me. i am rocking my z fold 3 and i love everything about the phone. i get well over 10 hours of battery life. i am a power user. the screen is just beautiful. playing games or streaming is just fantastic especially when you use the bigger screen. i know it is not for everyone. it is big even when it is folded up. it is really thick and heavy. but man!!!! when you unfold the phone the phone to a much bigger screen. there is nothing like it.

for me i hate samsung's one ui and so i always rock the nova launcher.

the camera is not the s22 ultra, but it is perfect for me.

i don't need a sd card. my phone came with 3 gigs of ram and 256 gigs of storage. i use google photos, to store my photos and videos....so they are not taking up room on my phone.

i will never look back on older devices......sure i loved my htc evo 3g, 3D, and 4G, but i can't imagine using them today.

i will most likely not get the z fold 4, but i most likely will look into getting the z fold 5.

i still have the note 4 that i use on occasion as an mp3 player, but that is it. even that i am using less. my bluetooth earbuds work a lot better with the z fold 3.

i mean old devices are great for just the simple stuff like making phone and texts. but as the device gets older doing anything else is not worth it.....at least for me.

but to each their own.

 

[nickdalzell]

I don't use Google photos because Google keeps killing their apps so I'd constantly stress over which app I'd have to adjust to in their next rebranding (After Google Music became YouTube Music that was the last straw). I also don't use the cloud because I prefer my content on my device since I don't have data or internet in many places I go. Today I went on a nature hike and was thankful my music was on local storage because it's a 1x/3G only area so streaming would murder the Thunderbolt's battery within minutes as it would search for better service.

I also like the convenience of owning my music and having it on SD card makes it much easier to transfer if I ever did change phones. No more opening up Amazon Music, dealing with their interpretation of 2FA and then spending hours downloading it all (2000+ MP3s).

I use my phone for the same things, using the same or similar apps as I did on that 3GS. Music, texting, phone, photos, camera, notes, calculator, document viewing at work (service manual PDFs), alarm clock, internet search, weather, and more. I don't need a modern phone to do any of that--and I can use it one-handed. the Thunderbolt is built like a 3310--it would not only survive a drop but would likely dent the floor. To be honest the phone doesn't really feel old. The UI, the design feels like an upgrade. going from flat to 3D is progress, and having more features vs. less feels like progress. Today's phones seriously feel like regression to me. But hey, use what you like. Android's motto is indeed, "Be Different. Not the Same."

Now, I'd be quite impressed to find anyone still using a HTC G1, I mean, Android Cupcake, anyone? However, I can easily believe there's people who still love their Nexus One, or Galaxy Nexus, or Motorola Droid with that sexy sliding keyboard.

I'd bet there's a few people left using their old T-Mobile SideKick II's as well. Not Android, but boy howdy was that a neat device! I bet it would still work for SMS/phone calls.

 

[Milo Williamson]

I don't use Google photos because Google keeps killing their apps so I'd constantly stress over which app I'd have to adjust to in their next rebranding (After Google Music became YouTube Music that was the last straw). I also don't use the cloud because I prefer my content on my device since I don't have data or internet in many places I go. Today I went on a nature hike and was thankful my music was on local storage because it's a 1x/3G only area so streaming would murder the Thunderbolt's battery within minutes as it would search for better service.

I also like the convenience of owning my music and having it on SD card makes it much easier to transfer if I ever did change phones. No more opening up Amazon Music, dealing with their interpretation of 2FA and then spending hours downloading it all (2000+ MP3s).

I use my phone for the same things, using the same or similar apps as I did on that 3GS. Music, texting, phone, photos, camera, notes, calculator, document viewing at work (service manual PDFs), alarm clock, internet search, weather, and more. I don't need a modern phone to do any of that--and I can use it one-handed. the Thunderbolt is built like a 3310--it would not only survive a drop but would likely dent the floor. To be honest the phone doesn't really feel old. The UI, the design feels like an upgrade. going from flat to 3D is progress, and having more features vs. less feels like progress. Today's phones seriously feel like regression to me. But hey, use what you like. Android's motto is indeed, "Be Different. Not the Same."

Now, I'd be quite impressed to find anyone still using a HTC G1, I mean, Android Cupcake, anyone? However, I can easily believe there's people who still love their Nexus One, or Galaxy Nexus, or Motorola Droid with that sexy sliding keyboard.

I'd bet there's a few people left using their old T-Mobile SideKick II's as well. Not Android, but boy howdy was that a neat device! I bet it would still work for SMS/phone calls.

Very true man, I was so used to do burning my albums and repeating them to the usb drive for countless years, but my ps3 stopped doing downloading the information, so I had to put in names old school, sometimes I really hated it to type up everything, even with my Siaxas controller, it was up to around five more minutes of pushing up and down though. That was ages ago. But now I have DNLA to move my photos to my Ps3, and never have to worry about the space, sure I have a pretty low memories for games, less than thirty gigs, and never go overboard with bigger names. -

On topic of your own post, yeah I used my cell to about everything, my old moto was a delightment, even smaller then my droid edge right now, it would hold a massive charge over night both cells, what down to the wire was a simplistic idea of having the old tech. And just have a nice interferiances, though I am on both scales

 

[nickdalzell]

Every post I have ever read about the Thunderbolt pans it for 'horrible battery ONLY LASTS TEN MINUTES but I just spent 8 hours hiking, listening to music, and having it play via my car's Bluetooth, took a couple of photos of my bunny and sent them to my girlfriend via the messages app, and still had more than 20% remaining. I dunno what they're talking about re: Bad battery life. My S20 FE's short existence couldn't make 5 hours without dropping to 30% just playing the same songs off the SD Card. Probably had to do with the S20's bad habit of syncing whatever it synced which used about 8GBs of data each month compared to the 487KBs of data my Thunderbolt used last May.

About the only place that the Thunderbolt struggles (well, any Android CDMA phone) is at work where the building I work out of is a literal Faraday cage, so you're stuck in 'NO SERVICE' and any CDMA or Verizon LTE phone becomes a hand warmer and battery tanks after a couple of hours so I keep it plugged in the entire duration and just use an iPod touch or 2-in-one laptop.

I really am just fond of 2010-13 tech. The design, the UI, the features. Nothing has come close to that magic since. Windows 10 feels so bland after being blessed with the rich colors and UI design of Windows 7, for example.

 

[mikedt]

I've still only got one really old phone, an Oppo Find 7 (2014), which was rooted and has CyanogenMod on it. I wouldn't say I still rock it. as it's been in a draw for several years. Has a removable battery though. All other phones either broke, or were sold or given away, like my first Galaxy S (2010) that died from a busted AMOLED screen.

I'm still keeping my previous Huawei Mate 10 (2017) though, as that's still useful as a remote control for the A/C, TV, Android box, etc, and for browsing. The IR-blaster seems to have gone the same way as the headphone jack. Huawei still supports and provides updates for a phone that's nearly five years old.

Current phone is a Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra, which I like very much, and has a micro-SD.

 

[mikedt]

Eventually I got an HTC Thunderbolt on Amazon and have been smitten with that level of amazement again and there ain't no way I'm giving it up. Also, I'm confident that since it never gets updates, I will never again have to repeat that hellscape of iOS 7 or any other 'modern' UX ever again. I've got Linux, Windows Vista and Windows 7 and all of them skeuomorphic. I enjoy whimsy. I just couldn't get used to modern phones. Not only are they all too big but they remove things I figured were Android staples. If I wanted an all-white UI where everything looks the same I'd go back to CP/M, DeskMate, or VisiON.

I can take or leave skeuomorphism, but I've always liked some aspects of it in Apple's GarageBand instruments....

 

[nickdalzell]

Sadly, Apple ultimately flattened GarageBand. It was the last holdover from their war on skeuo. The last thing they took away was the page turn animation from Books. I really believe their anti-skeuo stance had little to do with actual opinions on skeuo itself vs. their attempt to ditch anything Scott Forstall had to do with iOS/macOS/iPadOS. They hated him so much they wanted to ditch anything he influenced in design. Quite immature to be honest.

I'm surprised folks aren't sick to death of flat UI yet. It's been going on far longer than skeuomorphism did. Modern UI is just no fun to use anymore. It's boring, bland, and draining.

Android 2.3 did a better job of balancing aspects of it vs. Apple going over 9000 with it. There was no green felt, fake leather in Gingerbread, just buttons that looked tappable, and gloss in apps, and perhaps the Notes texture looking like a notepad at best.

If I had to use flat UI, I much prefer Holo from Android 4.0-4.4. It still had skeuo aspects and didn't dial it down to flat nearly as much as Android 5+ did. It was the only time Android had a consistent look for over a year, given developers of apps conformed with it pretty well and Google didn't constantly redefine the guidelines every other day.

On topic: More 'vintage' Androids in use in my life:

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 (my first Samsung tablet!)
Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 (2013, LTE/Wifi)
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 (used for ebooks mostly--old Kindle that's preloaded works fine)
Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 (2015--the most 'modern' one in use at the time)

 

[Davdi]

My daily driver is a Nokia X20 on Android 12 - getting regular security updates. I do have an InFocus IN610 on Jellybean as a backup phone. The removable 400MaH battery is still good for 3-4days use and the 8MP camera is really very good (Glass optics) I use it for GPS too, which with a 6" screen it does very well. I just wish I could get an AndroidGO GSI ti run on it (1GB/16GB).

 

[Hadron]

My original Desire (2010) is in a drawer, but could no longer run most of the things I need (it's not true that no apps care about the age: many of the things that are important to me won't run on 2.3). I should really dispose of it.

I have my HTC One (2013) still, but now stripped down software wise to a single use device. It doesn't have the storage capacity to work as a daily driver for me (I was having to juggle for the last couple of years it was my main phone).

I needed to use one app on my Pixel 2 (2017) this morning (which I retired in December). I plugged it in to charge and the display popped out: the battery pack had abruptly swollen. As I couldn't reset it I dismantled it and took a pair of snippers to the storage chip (yeah, I know it's encrypted and FRP protected but I wasn't taking chances).

I have a Galaxy Note 10.1 (2013) on the desk next to me, but it's not been charged for a year. The Pixel experience makes me wary of doing so now.

So no, I can't really say that I'm using any of my old devices any more.

I personally am not a fan of the early 2010s skeuomorphic interfaces: to be honest they looked old-fashioned, distracting and a bit tacky to me even in 2010, and I've always got rid of them relatively quickly (replacement ROMs, ROM theming, replacement launchers, icon packs).

 

[nickdalzell]

I was around during Flat UI's original coming--the 1980s-early 90s. Windows 1.x, 2.x, Tandy DeskMate, VisiON, Amiga WorkBench 1.x, Mac OS 6-7 (my only experience with classic Mac OS), and MS-DOS shell replacement BATMenu.

So to me Skeuo was truly the future. For once we had graphics and a UI to match the flat panel displays and boy it looked like holographic UI was next. But I'm old, so maybe younger people see flat as 'modern' and not a throwback to the past. Personally I adore nature-y interfaces and it feeling natural, organic, tappable, and whimsical. I HATE, absolutely cannot get used to the blinding white, basic looking UX we have today. It's too bland, clinical, boring and just drains me to use it for any length of time (one of the PCs I have to use at work has Windows 10. I still hate it)

But all my old stuff does everything I ask of it. My Note 10.1 (2012, not 2013. They made two. the 2012 ran 4.0.4 ICS originally, the 2014 edition eventually got Lollipop) is mainly for YouTube videos. I use the original Samsung browser and the m.youtube.com site. It works much like the original app did (I'm assuming Google killed it. I haven't launched it, I'd rather remember it as it was). I also got some games, all my music, some downloaded videos from the early YouTube days (back when the max time was 15 minutes) on there.

As stated before, my Tab 2 7.0 does a great job for books, mainly via Kindle. I got Aldiko also installed for free public domain books when I'm in the mood for more classical literature.

The Voyager III Tablet is one of the more modern ones next to the Tab A 8.0. I carry that one to Walmart to use Walmart Pay. I got an app called 'Calm' on the Tab A 8.0, to play nature sounds at night. The tablets are always offline until I need to do something needing internet (such as Walmart Pay).

The Tab 2 10.1 is a repository of Podcasts now, from the site Go Vegan Radio with Bob Linden. It's pretty full of archived podcasts dating back to 2010, with another tablet, a Visual Land Android 4.1 tablet filled with even older podcasts dating back to 2006.

The main phone, the HTC I mostly use to play music on the go (during hikes, via a BT speaker at work, via the car's bluetooth, via true wireless buds) and text my girlfriend. Those two apps, Music and Messages are the most important apps for me. Everything else, from Maps, to Kindle, to Angry Birds, to Weather, are all bonus material.

The Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet is another good one for reading books. It also does YouTube in the event my Note 10.1 is drained of battery (after watching some of More Kitboga or some of Shango066's vintage tech videos, it's usually drained and takes forever to recharge since the charging circuit is either fried or the battery has aged to the point it only charges slowly. It always has an 'X' inside the battery icon when plugged in, and does charge, but it can take 6-7 hours to fully charge from 20%)

On the more media side, again, trying to stay as close to 2009-13 (those were good years for me!) as possible, I got a PlayStation 4 and Xbox One console to do games and media with, along with some older Android TV boxes that still support some apps like Peacock. I do have a newer Chromecast with Google TV device for UHD content. I don't stay fully in the past; I do like some modern things just not all.

Work I got a Windows 7 PC that's offline but is a repository of PDFs (service manuals), diagnostic software, music, and wiring diagrams. At home I got a Vista PC (an eMachines from 2008 with original monitor) that I use for email and backing up/transferring MP3s since old Android still has Mass Storage support.

My two vehicles are a 2005 and 2006 also. I don't feel anything is missing, and without any need for the chaos of social media, there's nothing forcing me to update anything in order to run the latest version of Facebook, Twitter, and what is Tik Tok? Perhaps It's best to never know

 

[joe71]

The two phones I miss the most are the Nexus 6 and the T-Mobile HTC G2

 

[nickdalzell]

I still got a Nexus 6. It's inactive currently, but last I used it, I was trying out an Android 9-based ROM on it back when 9 was the latest version. It tanked the battery within 3-4 hours, and the phone ran super hot you couldn't comfortably keep it in your pocket (although it performed fine otherwise, no lag). I remember being quite disappointed in how they totally downgraded custom ROMs. No themes, nothing like CM 7 was. No Xposed even. Had to do something with the volume rocker/power to get it to boot, because it shows a red alert icon when turned on, never figured that one out.

Like that above screenshot only there's no 'press power to continue'.

 

[mikedt]

I was around during Flat UI's original coming--the 1980s-early 90s. Windows 1.x, 2.x, Tandy DeskMate, VisiON, Amiga WorkBench 1.x, Mac OS 6-7 (my only experience with classic Mac OS), and MS-DOS shell replacement BATMenu.

I had Commodore Amigas for a few years, in the late 80s and early 90s. An Amiga 500 and then upgraded to a 1200. Before that I I had a Commodore 64 and Sinclair ZX Spectrum.

Work I got a Windows 7 PC that's offline but is a repository of PDFs (service manuals), diagnostic software, music, and wiring diagrams.

I have to use Windows 7 every working day, because that's what's on the classroom PCs. But I'm only using Powerpoint and a media player software.

At home I got a Vista PC (an eMachines from 2008 with original monitor) that I use for email and backing up/transferring MP3s since old Android still has Mass Storage support.

in 2008, it was Windows Vista that made me first switch to using Apple Macbooks, and have never looked back.

My two vehicles are a 2005 and 2006 also. I don't feel anything is missing, and without any need for the chaos of social media, there's nothing forcing me to update anything in order to run the latest version of Facebook, Twitter, and what is Tik Tok? Perhaps It's best to never know

I've got Douyin(Chinese version of TikTok), so I can see the videos Dr Wangfu(my cardiologist) posts.

 

[nickdalzell]

Oh believe me, Vista was no picnic back when it launched. I had tons of laptops/netbooks end up with non-functional wifi due to a bug causing it to default to 'unidentified network local access only' and the troubleshooter claiming the gateway couldn't be found, and even with static IP settings and manually inputting the default gateway it wouldn't fix it. Never happened with the ethernet port however.

I do love its UI though. I got a system at home running it via ethernet and with proper spec so I can see the Aero stuff I completely missed out on. It's SP2 and does quite well for what little I ask of it. When I had Vista back when it launched, it annoyed me with performance issues (30 minutes to get to a usable desktop) and Wifi issues (the aforementioned bug). I, too, switched to Mac then, in 2012, and had an iPhone 3GS, later 4, then an iPad 3. Once iOS 7 and Mac OS X Yosemite happened, however, it soured the entire thing. If not for being able to use classic Android phones, I'd be stuck with the soulless bland UI design to this day.

In fact, the WiFi on the work PC running Windows 10 does the same thing and you HAVE to use ethernet. So they never fixed that annoying bug nor identified what causes it. You can wipe the OS and reinstall, and it will just come back in a few weeks. Updating the driver or replacing the driver won't fix it. Something gets corrupted.

 

[mikedt]

I do love its UI though. I got a system at home running it via ethernet and with proper spec so I can see the Aero stuff I completely missed out on. It's SP2 and does quite well for what little I ask of it. When I had Vista back when it launched, it annoyed me with performance issues (30 minutes to get to a usable desktop) and Wifi issues (the aforementioned bug). I, too, switched to Mac then, in 2012, and had an iPhone 3GS, later 4, then an iPad 3. Once iOS 7 and Mac OS X Yosemite happened, however, it soured the entire thing. If not for being able to use classic Android phones, I'd be stuck with the soulless bland UI design to this day.

The thing is for me, the classic Android phones would actually be rather useless to me as a smart-phone. Mainly because of the essential apps I need and use, like WeChat, AliPay, TaoBao, DiDi, Jinan Subway, Ctrip, etc.

I did like the original Aqua UI of OS X/macOS, but on the other hand I'm OK with it's more recent versions running in Dark Mode.

In fact, the WiFi on the work PC running Windows 10 does the same thing and you HAVE to use ethernet. So they never fixed that annoying bug nor identified what causes it. You can wipe the OS and reinstall, and it will just come back in a few weeks. Updating the driver or replacing the driver won't fix it. Something gets corrupted.

Never had much experience of Windows 10, and I've actually used Ubuntu Linux much more.

 

[nickdalzell]

I suppose it's a good thing I don't need any of those apps or any apps that depend on modern Android OS. I do know Apple kills apps or the devs won't even allow you to open even Kindle on an iPhone 4 or any iPhone with the OS 2-generations out of date. Even if you never update the app, it eventually just stops working telling you to update it and then it will give an error saying 'you need iOS xx to update this app' meaning you're going to be buying a new phone over and over just to read a freaking Kindle book.

Meanwhile the pre-loaded Kindle app on my Thunderbolt continues to work fine. So in a way, Android has better support than Apple.

Obviously a phone made in 2011 won't support an app from 2018 or many years after it went out of support. But I thankfully don't depend on those types of apps, and the few modern apps I do depend on run on a tablet.

I've only used a smartphone for a few things since 2010. Angry Birds, varous other mobile games, SMS, calling, note taking, music playback, Google searches, calculators, camera, reading PDFs, alarm clock, basically it replaces the need to carry an iPod or MP3 player, camera, and phone. I don't need my phone to do it all, as in I'm not gonna squint at such a small screen to view media--I have a perfectly good tablet for that; I'm also not going to replace a laptop with a phone. There's a scene from the movie RV that has the main character typing out a multi-page document for his office on a BlackBerry, and him struggling to catch a signal all night just to send it. Reminds me of when I lived in a camper and couldn't even use a laptop properly (nowhere convenient to plug it in) and relied on my Tab 2 just to post to Android Forums. One wrong finger tap and I am back to the home screen and lost the post I was making!

Ironically enough my love of Linux and experience grew because I DESPISE Windows 10. If I need modern support that's what I use, Linux. I got a 2020 HP laptop running a variant of Ubuntu that is themed to look identical to Vista/7. I can skeuomorph Linux all day long. This Toshiba (2012) is running Linux as well.

The work PC runs Windows 10 though and it sucks. It's got 100 desktop shortcuts plastered across two monitors, and the boss is more old school than I, and ONLY trusts Internet Explorer. The CCTV camera software ONLY runs on I.E., as well. So imagine having to use that for anything! They also only use Yahoo! Mail. I don't know how they stand it.

MY Work PC, which is on my toolbox in my shop, runs 7. It just plays music/muzak and does diagnostic software and doesn't need an internet connection. It's the one I need to look parts online that needs internet and that's the Windows 10 nightmare. It's full of Cheetah Mobile malware, a fake google search, CCleaner, and performs much like an i486 running Windows 98.

 

[Davdi]

Really! For several years I had an i486DX running 98SE quite happily with internet via Ethernet. BUT I had maxed out the memory to 20Meg and overclocked it a bit (!).

 

[codezer0]

Really! For several years I had an i486DX running 98SE quite happily with internet via Ethernet. BUT I had maxed out the memory to 20Meg and overclocked it a bit (!).

Dial-up would have had you ready to take that system out back and shoot it.

Hell, I didn't have a home pc until about the Pentium 3, and didn't have my own system until the original AMD Athlon got popular. I grew to hate dial-up internet with a passion, but it was also my only choice until well into the PS2/Xbox/GameCube console generation. In hindsight I would have begged to get the lan adapter for the dreamcast... but it was almost until a year after that we finally had something faster available for an internet connection.

 

[nickdalzell]

I had it worse. I had America Online! Before that I had Prodigy. Heck, I was in mid-college before I even had a Pentium-based anything. While today the challenge is keeping 3G/11 year old Androids going, back then it was "what must I do to force an i386DX/33 to burn a CD-R, or what setup hacks were necessary to run Windows ME on an i486." Now why I even gave the Mistake Edition a chance is the real mystery.

In college I was the one who still clung to an old Compaq Contura Aero 4/33 sub-notebook with floppy drive 'dongle'. It did the job so why upgrade? same view I have today really. If whatever I use serves my needs 100% and I'm happy with it, why bother upgrading? Obsolescence is a subjective term. something is only obsolete when it no longer serves the needs of its owner. I don't believe it's any coporation's business if the phone I carry is new or 11 years old. I save e-waste, limited resources and money by keeping what works for me.

Heck, I was still using Windows 98 SE in 2011, for Facebook, YouTube, Adobe Flash content (games) and so on. I HATED XP. I was used to 98SE much like I'm used to Android 2.3. XP felt slow, bloated, had the worst theme ever (Fisher Price Luna) and felt like it was intended for morons, no offense to anyone who loved XP.

 

[mikedt]

Talking of old tech that you still rock. A friend gave me this lump of a thing a couple of weeks ago.

An external HP DVD 940 "LightScribe" CD/DVD drive, probably from circa 2005. And It actually still works when I tried it on my new MacBook Pro with Apple Silicon.

I already had an external USB CD/DVD drive. that is much smaller and lighter that doesn't need to run off mains AC power, unlike the HP.

BTW it was the "LightScribe" feature that really took me down a rabbit hole, i.e. it's a CD/DVD drive that can do its own labels on the discs it burns.

 

[codezer0]

Talking of old tech that you still rock. A friend gave me this lump of a thing a couple of weeks ago.

An external HP DVD 940 "LightScribe" CD/DVD drive, probably from circa 2005. And It actually still works when I tried it on my new MacBook Pro with Apple Silicon.
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I already had an external USB CD/DVD drive. that is much smaller and lighter that doesn't need to run off mains AC power, unlike the HP.

BTW it was the "LightScribe" feature that really took me down a rabbit hole, i.e. it's a CD/DVD drive that can do its own labels on the discs.

If I remember right, the Lightscribe feature used the same laser to burn (print) the label on the other side. Even the last editions of such disc drives took something like 40 minutes per disc if you wanted something with detail, and about a minute for text that was still not as easy to read as the old sharpie method.

I can understand wanting to get rid of a printer (because seriously, eff the business model around those things); I just don't think this was the best way to go about that.