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How long do you keep your laptop?

Although I think the average is about 2-3 years, I try to squeeze as much life as I can out of my computers.

My last laptop was a Dell Inspiron 1100. It was five years old when I finally gave up on it. Before that I had a hand-me-down Powerbook 150, that was about five or so years old when I got it, and I got about 3 more years of use out of it before the hard drive finally died.

I'm hoping my macbook lasts me more than five years, but only time will tell.
 
I plan on using my MacBook until I can't run the latest Operating System on it, which would probably be in another 5 years or so. Then, I would consider buying a new Mac. I'm never going to sell it, though; it would just break my heart. :eek:
 
i get as much lift out of them as i can. but all my laptops and computers are on pretty much 24/7 for various things so they tend to 'burn out' after about 1-2 years.

not too bad i guess.

talking about windows laptops so they are cheap as chips compared to mac's.
(i can't afford a macbook yet)
when this windows laptop dies i will buy one straight away.
 
For me, 9 months to a year - unless, in the case of the Sony UX for example, there's no immediate direct replacement that passes muster.

That is, unless it was an Apple Macbook Pro, each example of which has typically been replaced every 4-6 months to date due to cosmetic damage caused by impacts that other better-built machines would shrug off with nary a scratch, problem(s, more often than not) with the machine, or a new one coming out and me buying it in the forlorn hope that it's better than the previous pile of pretty crap. Thankfully it's not a problem I need to deal with anymore, since I now have no Macbook Pros.
 
For me it's about 2 -3 years. I won't let any of them be thrown out either. So far i have upgraded that many times

First laptop i ever owned was a Toshiba A30, then i WON a Acer Ferrari 4000, i bought my Macbook, i picked up a second hand PB 12inch then i have bought my Macbook PRO
 
localghost said:
i still use my pismo :D (google it)
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Nice :cool:. I kept my G3 around the house till two years ago, when the hinges failed. I duct-taped a piece of string to it to the display upright, but I decided to finally retire it.

As for my Cube, it's now a Linux box; as for my TiBook I sold it... I never throw away old computers. And for my PB 12", I'm going to hold onto it until Nehalem comes out in 2009. It still works fine, and I do my photo/video stuff on my iMac anyway.
 
I'm disabled. I drop things, generally in the process of falling over and trying to protect my head rather than whatever I'm carrying from the rapidly-approaching floor. This is a fact of my life and I don't feel terribly guilty if I injure some replaceable object in such a way. When I got my iBook I figured if it lasted a year I'd have had my money's worth. It's now a little over three years old. The lid no longer latches (thanks to my MUM dropping it!), the left speaker doesn't always work, one USB port is dodgy, and the microphone's dead, but this is still my favourite machine and I'm much more comfortable using it than my C2D white iMac. It was my first Mac, so I plan on keeping it forever, but in the next year or so I expect it to be put away somewhere and fished out only when I really gotta run some Classic app or other. So, I'm cautiously hopeful about getting to the four-year mark with this one.

I expect I won't be so enamoured of my next laptop, and may think about doing the keep-it-for-a-year-then-upgrade thing with it. Then again, that was my plan with my iMac and when the time came I couldn't let it go. Something about having a Mac on hand that I've used and enjoyed for some time means that whenever there's a new product announcement I see everything 'wrong' with the new models, everything they can't do that mine do, instead of all the new wonderful whatnot.
 
I get a new computer every 6 months to a year... May wait longer this time... Buy extended AAPL care and keep it for 6 months later.... then sale and get a new/ SLIGHTLY used mac..
 
I'm planning on keeping this one (MacBook) until atleast after undergraduate study, and hopefully until after postgrad if I choose to go that route. So I'm looking at at least 3/4 years and a maximum of 8. I'll be a poor student so I won't be able to afford anything in uni anyway :eek:
 
I had my iBook G4 for about 3 years, then I got a MacBook Pro.

I plan to have this until I graduate High School, so about 4 years.
 
My last Apple laptop was the 2001 iBook (500MHz G3), which I kept for about five years before selling it. Other than having to replace the AC adapter once, it never missed a beat. The fan got a little noisy towards the end though.

And I still use my PowerBook 170 regularly. That thing's about 17 years old! :)
 
After playing with my calculator, I've worked out over the last ten years I've gone through seven laptops. Lately the average lifespan has dropped, partly due to my increased requirement for POWER (said in a Clarkson style), and partly due to the MBPs failing (I can hear Sesshi cheering that I'm agreeing the build quality lacks a certain something).

My current MBP is around 3 months old, and the one before that barely made it to 14 months before crapping out and having to be replaced.

Because of my disgust of the new machines (I prefer to see what's on screen, not what's behind me thanks), I hope to keep this MBP for much much longer.
 
bigandy said:
Because of my disgust of the new machines (I prefer to see what's on screen, not what's behind me thanks), I hope to keep this MBP for much much longer.
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Yep- I have a feeling I'll be keeping my last rev BlackBook much longer than planned as well. So sad what they did to the MBPs. I went to the store to check them out and all I can say is- yuck. This is supposed to be a pro machine?
 
leekohler said:
Yep- I have a feeling I'll be keeping my last rev BlackBook much longer than planned as well. So sad what they did to the MBPs. I went to the store to check them out and all I can say is- yuck. This is supposed to be a pro machine?
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I think it's been realigned to suit the "rich consumer" and "oil baron's kids" markets, instead of the pros.
 
bigandy said:
I think it's been realigned to suit the "rich consumer" and "oil baron's kids" markets, instead of the pros.
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I think you're right. What's going on? It used to be that Apple made machines that were practical and easy to use. Now they're going backward on that. I mean, it can look nice, but it has to be functional too.

I know what you mean though. The MacBook Pro should be called the MacBook Yuppie. And the ACDs? Wow- glossy too? I was shocked.
 
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