So I recently updated my late-2012 Macbook Pro to Big Sur. The late-2012 MBP was not slated to receive Big Sur for some reason which meant I either sell it, leave it as it is only getting security patches, or use a patcher to unofficially install Big Sur on it. These patchers are written by people like you and me who feel these devices are being given the shaft way too early.
So I did what any tech-nerd would do, I chose to use the Big Sur patcher because I refuse to sell my MBP, plus I like living on the edge. Its performance is great and I’ve not had any issues so far.
This brings me to the e-waste part. It’s high time for laws to be added to the books where if a company has a market cap of let’s say 1 Trillion dollars and they make their own hardware, that they are required to take back their old stuff as e-waste. The law would also have provisions in it to prevent them from sending it off to China. The theory is that this would be so costly that they would stop the mentality of planned adolescence and support their hardware longer and make better equipment. The US makes something like 50 million metric tonnes of e-waste a year.
“Planned adolescence” is actually a real thing. The basic premise is forced consumer spending. If a company only ever sells you 1 product that lasts a lifetime, it would go out of business eventually. Why make a refrigerator with top-quality capacitors, when they can choose ones that are designed to last around 10 years then die off, requiring you to buy a new fridge. Companies that engage in this are absolutely shameful and deserve to be regulated.
Industrial design – Modern design in the United States | Britannica
“With this great output capability, most probably, came a tendency toward planned obsolescence. This term was supposedly coined after World War II by American industrial designers and writers to indicate industry’s desire to produce consumer items that would be replaced even before their actual utility expired. Although the concept is often linked with the second half of the 20th century, it is likely that American industrialists saw this profit-making opportunity well before then.”