Purchasing a 2nd computer for emergencies?

Jean Dimitriadis wrote:

By wasteful, I was mostly referring to purchasing a second (new?) computer for the sole or primary purpose of "just in case".

Keeping your old computer around or salvaging a secondhand one would definitely not belong to the same category, especially if that computer is getting some real use.

IrinaN wrote:

I refuse to use Cloud and cut it off to the maximum extent possible. I don't know what it does on the background, if anything. Matter of principle, naive as it may be. ]

IrinaN wrote:

I refuse to use Cloud and cut it off to the maximum extent possible. I don't know what it does on the background, if anything. Matter of principle, naive as it may be.

Samuel Murray wrote:


Computers (and particularly laptops) become old very quickly. So, if you were to buy a brand new one today and your other computer breaks two years from now, you're suddenly using a 2-year old laptop, and two years is a long time in laptop land. Wouldn't it be better to keep the money for the laptop handy, and then when you really need to have it, buy it at that very moment. (This doesn't help for e.g. if you really, really need a new computer over the weekend or you live far away from computer stores.)

You can agonize over whether this or that fancy feature in a new laptop is better, but ultimately what determines the value of a laptop is the price. Expensive ones are better than cheap ones. So don't be too worried that you might not buy the very best laptop at the very moment that you buy it.

Also, you can sell the laptop when the crisis is over (if you sell it quickly, it'll still get a reasonable price). The difference between the purchase price of the laptop and the second-hand sale price of the laptop is just a cost of doing business. Ask yourself: if you were to buy a EUR 500 laptop and sell it for EUR 300 a month later, would the EUR 200 make up for the fact that you weren't left stranded without a computer?


I do have a holiday computer, but it's not nearly as fast as the main one. It main aim is to allow me to accept small jobs from clients during my holidays, so that I don't lose them as clients.

Metin Demirel wrote:


This year several external disks I had for years failed to work.

IrinaN wrote:



HDs and thumb drives are cheap to replace in time before they fail. I don't keep the same ones for "years", some are duplicates by now.

I don't like it when someone touches my things without my permission, that's all. Even without stealing it Same as eavesdropping - I'll be just as mad when someone will eavesdrop on me drinking coffee, as if I were in a shower.

I know it sounds naive, especially after working with the professional SW developers. One day we have been sitting on break with my colleagues. One mentioned that he wants to buy another laptop, and me - another pair of fall boots. Both our laptops were on. In a few hours we got a flood of ads about new laptops and fashionable boots, respectively. He didn't have Ad Block, and when I turned mine off for the sake of experiment after he mentioned his ads, then I saw my boots They listen! We were on a secure network!

I asked super professional people, and they confirmed. Yet it doesn't mean that I'll be keeping my doors and windows wide open 24/7 for everyone's eyes.


Edited for typos.


[Edited at 2022-09-20 17:31 GMT]

IrinaN wrote:



HDs and thumb drives are cheap to replace in time before they fail. I don't keep the same ones for "years", some are duplicates by now.