I saw a PCMCIA IDE card at a flee market without the cable. That stopped me buying it because it’s unclear if I would be able to find the cable it needs. Obviously the drive end of the cable would be the 50-pin standard but what about the tiny connector that attaches to the PCMCIA card?
Cost might be negligible… probably $/€ 1-5 for the card and probably $/€ 1 for the cable if i find one. I’m happy with the 15 y.o. laptop. I think I’ll get at least another 5-10 years out of it. I’m not gaming or anything heavy, so I believe I will never again have to buy a PC or laptop. I keep finding functional PCs in the trash that are faster than what I need. I expect that pattern to continue as long as MS continues to bloat out Windows and leverage designed obsolescence against a majority of the population. Even LCDs and scanners I pull from the trash have no issues. I’ve accumulated HDDs from the trash that are useful for temporary operations, like having an extra backup or two while migrating to a new Debian release.
I just love the fact that I do not need to support bad players in the marketplace. I have never had to buy a post-2008 intel cpu or a post-2013 AMD CPU (which means I have never had to contribute to chip makers who produce anti-noncorp-consumer management engines). IIUC, the only modern spy-free chip is the ibm power11. If I ever see the day that I need to buy new gear it would have to be that. Not sure if they put the power11 in laptops yet, or if there will be a mobile variant.
That’s a very infantile and childish way to look at the computer industry as a whole.
It’s the other way around – childishly selfish to partake in reckless consumerism, buying goods needlessly with total disregard for ethics of the supply chains and ethics of excessive production and consequential waste. Naïve to then advocate for products that are actually anti-consumer. And disgusting to see someone encouraging others to behave like children in the same way while at the same time calling adults in the room “childish”. Shame on you.