Closure: Hoarding scrutinized

[mikemex]

Hey guys,

Is there an important reason to keep old stuff? I mean, really important?
I don't have a problem with keeping old stuff if that's what I really want, but I find myself not really using my old stuff much, if at all.
And I'm thinking: maybe I should let someone else have it, before it becomes truly obsolete and useless for anyone.

I mean, even fully upgraded, what could I use a T61 for nowadays?
I still have the modular bay modules with serial and parallel ports and that could be useful for CNC stuff. But other than that, I don't really see much need to run old software. And for anything truly mission critical, I would think twice before relying on a 20+ year piece of hardware.

My old W530 has so many features a modern laptop doesn't have, starting with the possibility to install an optical drive. But the only real use I see for that at this point is getting a blu-ray drive, so I can read my backups. But knowing that the market for both drives and media is almost dead, what's the point?

I had a few battery spares for my newer laptops, but since I didn't know I couldn't store them for long periods, they died. Seems like new stuff will never last as long as the old one. Machines with round cells seem to do much better, but still, I have to take stuff out and charge it and it's becoming a chore.

After so many years, I don't really know where to get good old software anymore (I mean, age-proper software). And without software, you're left with the bare OS and drivers, attempting to do new stuff at crawl speed.

I have several 2.5" mechanical drives. IDE/PATA, even. What can I possibly use them for? I mostly kept them as "tools" for diagnosing old machines for friends and like that. But nobody uses that kind of stuff anymore.

[TPFanatic]

sentiment, character, and identity