A few days ago my other half mentioned that she had a couple of Macbooks at work that were being retired, and wondered if I might be interested in them. I tentatively said “maybe”, knowing that we have a house full of computers of all shapes and sizes already.
There’s a part of me saying “it will be interesting to see what Apple have done in recent years” (I had a lovely white Macbook about 18 years ago), but there’s another part of me that says “do you really need this?” I already have Chromebooks, Windows, and Linux machines around the house - not to mention Android phones.
I guess curiosity killed this cat.
This morning while getting ready to leave for work my other half pulled the old Macbooks from the back of the car and left them on the desk in the junk room. It still amuses me that part of her job is installing and managing laptops for the company she works at. She’s good at it too. I’m guessing they are still small enough that the office admin staff look after operational IT - wearing all the hats, all the time. I used to work for a similarly sized company years ago (decades ago… gulp) - I was their first IT specialist as they grew. I sometimes miss it.
This evening I’ve been poking around at one of the Macbooks - installing software, and watching the battery deplete - wondering what sort of life it has had, and how much life it still has left in it. It would be a shame for it to end up in a recycling centre somewhere. Yes, it’s not the fastest machine in the world, and no, the battery doesn’t last that long, but it still works.
I’ve told my other half to make an offer on both of them.
You know the funny thing? My mobile phone has come up for renewal recently, and for one reason or another I’ve not gotten around to putting the upgrade order in. I thought the mobile service provider’s website had gone wrong this past weekend when it would only offer me iPhones as upgrades to my existing Android phone.
Maybe the universe was making me wait.
First impressions of the Macbook I’m using - and macOS, I suppose - after so many years away from it - is that Apple hasn’t really changed. Their bundled software and cloud platform are just as bad as they ever were, and their hardware is just as good as it ever was. Their technology products are still massively over-priced, and still manufactured in sweat-shops in China.
It’s always amused me that people take sides - between either Microsoft, Apple, or Linux. I’ve used all of them for years - they all serve the same purposes, although in slightly different ways. Once you’ve used enough different computer systems you almost become ambivalent about any particular flavour - if you can still get what you want done, it’s all good.
Anyway.
I’m running again in the morning. Still in “week 1” of the Couch-to-5k programme. I’m deliberately taking it very slowly, because it’s been so long. The temptation - and I know what I’m like - will be to start skipping weeks, to jump towards running 5k. I know it will happen about a month in - I’ve been there before. Here’s hoping I don’t. It’s not a race this time - it’s about forging a habit - making running a normal part of life once again.
It probably sounds a bit silly, but I’m actually looking forward to tomorrow’s run.