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  • The Rise Of =?UTF-8?B?4oCcRnJhbmtlbnN0ZWlu4oCd?= Laptops In New=?UTF-8?B?RGVsaGnigJlz?= Repair Markets

    From Lawrence D'Oliveiro@ldo@nz.invalid to comp.misc on Mon Apr 7 21:05:18 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    India has long had a, shall we say, “informal engineering” culture,
    where backstreet operators put together improvised machinery of
    various kinds from whatever parts are available.

    Now this extends to assembling working laptops out of the parts of broken/junked ones <https://www.theverge.com/tech/639126/india-frankenstein-laptops>.
    This allows Indians on low incomes (which is much of the country) an alternative to unaffordable new-built machines.

    There is a downside to these operations, and that is the health risks
    from exposure to toxic materials.

    Seems the Indian Government is becoming aware that it can be helpful
    to these homegrown industries if it passed some good right-to-repair
    laws, as is happening in many Western countries.

    One question that isn’t answered in the article is: what OS are these recycled/refurbished machines running? I can’t imagine that Microsoft
    would offer Windows licences for them at anything resembling OEM
    prices. And I don’t think the company would accept that there is such
    a thing as a “secondhand” Windows licence.
    --- Synchronet 3.20c-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From not@not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) to comp.misc on Tue Apr 8 08:41:11 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
    India has long had a, shall we say, "informal engineering" culture,
    where backstreet operators put together improvised machinery of
    various kinds from whatever parts are available.

    Now this extends to assembling working laptops out of the parts of broken/junked ones <https://www.theverge.com/tech/639126/india-frankenstein-laptops>.
    This allows Indians on low incomes (which is much of the country) an alternative to unaffordable new-built machines.

    There is a downside to these operations, and that is the health risks
    from exposure to toxic materials.

    That bit is pretty vague. The guy they quote as saying "I cough a
    lot" just says "We find working RAM sticks, motherboards with minor
    faults, batteries that still hold charge and sell it to different
    electronic workshops". So if that kills you, computer builders/repairers/parts-sellers everywhere should be dying off.
    Maybe there's someone across the road burning rubbish and making
    toxic smoke where they're doing that, but then it's their
    environment that's the health problem, not their occupation.

    One question that isn't answered in the article is: what OS are these recycled/refurbished machines running? I can't imagine that Microsoft
    would offer Windows licences for them at anything resembling OEM
    prices.

    Surely they're using hacks to run Windows unactivated, much like
    I usually do if I really need to install it (shh!). Win 10 mostly
    works without activation anyway.
    --
    __ __
    #_ < |\| |< _#
    --- Synchronet 3.20c-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Lawrence D'Oliveiro@ldo@nz.invalid to comp.misc on Mon Apr 7 23:14:04 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    On 8 Apr 2025 08:41:11 +1000, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:

    So if that kills you, computer builders/repairers/parts-sellers
    everywhere should be dying off.

    You missed the part of the article talking about retrieving working parts
    from mountains of e-waste, then? That has long been a known health hazard, which is why Western countries have been shipping all that stuff off to third-world places like India and China, to save their own citizens at the expense of the ones in those countries.

    Surely they're using hacks to run Windows unactivated ...

    And no doubt Microsoft can use that to pressure the Government into
    shutting down these businesses on the pretext of “facilitating piracy” ... --- Synchronet 3.20c-Linux NewsLink 1.2