@buck.ten4 In 2002 I got a Compaq Presario 700. WIth a RAM upgrade from the original 128MB to 386MB I used that one until in 2006 I switched to some Fujitsu Amilo. On that I also upgraded the RAM from 512MB to 1GB but that's minor, since at one point, the power connector broke on it. A rather common failure that would have rendered it completely useless if I hadn't been able to repair it by soldering a new connector on the motherboard. I then bought a Compaq Mini 730 netbook in 2009 and upgraded the hard drive to an SSD and changed the 1GB stick of RAM to a 2GB one. In 2011 I bought a HP Probook 4330 with a Sandy Bridge i3 on it. This is still in daily use after six years and a HDD -> SSD upgrade and 4GB to 8GB RAM upgrade. Last year I received for free a Sony Vaio from 2013 that was thrown away because of intermittent power failures. It turned out not to be too hard to fix. Which one of these cases is unbelievable?

Over the last 15 years I've had just five laptops or tablets. I have extended the useful life of each and every one of those by performing hardware updates and repairs on them. For the past 5-6 years, the advancement of computer tech has been slow enough that devices would actually be perfectly usable for years if they survive long enough. And that survival could be helped if manufacturers wouldn't screw us over for profits. Of course Microsoft and friends would like me to just stuff my laptop in the garbage if it breaks down but that's bad for both my wallet and the environment.