PCs That Are Made to 'Expire' and 'Secure' Boot Contributing to Planned Obsolescence
Growing up in the 1980s, I became accustomed to batteries being something you insert or slide into things (even a small portable television), not something you solder into things or try to carefully and meticulously insert by disassembling entire electronic things (difficult and dangerous, not to mention time-consuming).
Even a kid could do it!
After nearly 10 years (it'll be a decade next year) of my ARM-based laptop its battery isn't enough to sustain it, even when it's plugged into the mains (it seems to insist on everything going through the battery). It has been getting much worse over the past 3 years; it would just panic, lose charge, then shut off almost randomly; in 2026 it's hard to even keep the thing going for an hour after several days' "changing" (if it does anything at all) and the battery swelled over time - something that I understand is both common and dangerous. Looking up the cost of a replacement battery for this model, it's almost a third the price of the new unit (in 2017) - even if purchased in eBay - and it's incredibly hard to replace compared to some of the 1990s (and some 2000s) laptops. There's no slot and/or compartment, one must detach and disassemble almost everything (many wires, not just one, need to be 'cut off', then screen removed altogether). This is terrible design; it's meant to be serviced by nobody other than certified professionals and even then it can be risky (other components might fail or get damaged in the process of reassembly).
No doubt home appliances got a lot worse (prone to failure and much harder to repair); it seems to have impacted the "PC sector" to the point where people are encouraged to stop using - or throw away - perfectly good computers only because the battery is weak/impaired. Surely this is good for people who profit from more and more sales, but it's bad for the environment and it's uneconomic to 99% or more of us. It's a scam. And since we lack regulation/enforcement of rules they get away with it.
On top of that, the 'Hulk Hogan of UEFI' kept promoting 'secure' boot that is just another way to 'expire' machines that would otherwise work OK with GNU/Linux. We wrote quite a lot about it last summer, ahead of 9/11 of 2025. From today's Daily Links: Your PC’s trust in Windows has an expiration date
Microsoft has clarified what will happen to Windows 11 PCs if Secure Boot certificates are not updated before they expire in June 2026.
Digital restrictions like these are terrible for the planet and in no way enhance protection. People who are responsible for this ought to be held accountable. █