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The can of worms we opened when we learned of the server switched off after eighteen years and ten months' service is still wriggling, as a reader has contacted us to tell of nearly 30-year-old laptops still in service.
Reader "Holrum" says he has "a couple dozen Toshiba T1000 laptops from the mid [1980s] still fully functional (including floppy drives)".
The T1000 was introduced in 1987. [...] The machine was one of the very first computers to use a clamshell form factor. [...] It also offered a rather archaic LCD display, as illustrated.
[...]The machine ran MS-DOS 2.11 on a ROM [and] came with a colossal 512kB of RAM [...] and a single 3.5-inch floppy drive.
Holrum says the T1000s are taken offline every few years for just the few minutes required to replace the NiCad batteries and give them a clean before they are returned to duty as process monitoring terminals.
Previous: Beat This: Server Retired After 18 Years and 10 Months
(Score: 2, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Monday February 15 2016, @11:02PM
Could be low power usage is one reason why those old laptops are still in use. Small footprint may be another reason. They can't match a Pi, but they're a whole lot better than an 80's era 80386 desktop PC. Heck, they're probably better on those points than the average desktop PC of circa 2005. The typical ATX case with several cubic parsecs of empty space inside should have been retired 15 years ago. Same with the 3 in 1 +12V/+5V/-5V gigantic desktop power supply and those 4 pin Molex connectors. Terribly wasteful of power and space.