r/agedlikewine

Thus a people may prefer a free government, but if, from indolence, or carelessness, or cowardice, or want of public spirit, they are unequal to the exertions necessary for preserving it; if they will not fight for it when it is directly attacked; if they can be deluded by the artifices used to cheat them out of it; if by momentary discouragement, or temporary panic, or a fit of enthusiasm for an individual, they can be induced to lay their liberties at the feet even of a great man, or trust him with powers which enable him to subvert their institutions; in all these cases they are more or less unfit for liberty: and though it may be for their good to have had it even for a short time, they are unlikely long to enjoy it.

Greetings everyone, My story starts with a laptop that was never meant to see the light of day after 5 years let alone the 11 years till now that it survived. A peice of plastic and metal most would look at and say, “What is this” or “i should get something better”. But i would say, it was a background, almost a legacy that has lived for 11 years and more of my life. The Inspiron 15 3542, manufactured on January 12th 2015.
Fun Fact: The laptop has never been opened, cleaned or any oem parts replaced except the hdd(which was converted to an external drive) and the ram (upgraded from 4gb to 8gb). And the max recorded temperature was 83C because the cpu was pushing 20w to increase the headroom that the igpu and the cpu have. Otherwise avg highs were 80C.
Specs :
- 2015-2017ish (Aprox.) -
  - Cpu: i3 4005u (2 cores 4 threads)
  - Gpu: iGPU
  - Ram: 4gb samsung 1600mhz (oem)
  - Storage: 1tb hdd
  - OS: Linux - windows 10
  - Charger: OEM 65W dell
  - Battery: 66.6Whr
  - Screen: 15.6” 720p TN panel
- 2026 -
  - Cpu: i3 4005u (2 cores 4 threads)
  - Gpu: iGPU
  - Ram: 8gb crucial 1600mhz ddr3
  - Storage: 256gb ssd
  - OS: Windows 11
  - Charger: OEM 65W dell
  - Battery: 66.6Whr ~65% battery health (~43whr)
  - Screen: 15.6” 720p TN panel
Back to the story, The laptop was immediately put in a shop for a OS change to windows 10 in 2016 or after it. 4 years were uneventful, it was mostly used for house work, and 7-8 year old me was just playing roblox on it. When i was 9 years old, microsoft somehow offered a “free windows 11 update” which shouldn't be possible considering my cpu doesn't have TPM 2.0 . but i clicked it anyways. It updated to 21H2, and microsoft stopped giving updates.
When i became 9 - 10 years old, i began to code, first it was scratch, html, then python as i grew older. Without this laptop, I wouldn't have been able to code. As i grew older, i started to become more interested in technology, pc parts. And to be honest? It was due to the laptop,as it was rreeaaallly slow, and for some reason it was locked at 0.8 ghz and i managed to unlock it to its full 1.7ghz, tons for debloating. It was at its peak in 2024 - 25 years. At that time i removed battery while plugged in and put it back in, and the bios/OS did not like that and the bios forgot its own oem charger. It could still browse, do work, very light gaming, touched piracy because i cant buy games, i played COD Modern warfare, COD 2, Sniper Elite V2 original, NFS Most Wanted, GT4 (pcsx2) and more.
Unfortunately, the heavy debloating damaged the OS to badly, and slowly but surely, all microsoft apps and OS features began to die, Windows 11 started to look like windows 10, most features breaking. Fortunately, Bios finally managed to identify its own oem charger, and could charge the battery at last. The Apps work, i have installed, e.g browsers, games, cmd, task manager, etc. Below are the few images ranging from oldest images first to latest.
I mean yea, the hinges are basically dead, the plastic is broken, had to do tapes stuff, But the Laptop still stands, works, even after pirating, getting a virus, running the impossible windows 11, almost corrupting the OS, drops and falls, sudden power loss, etc.
As for my upcoming plans? I'm going to go with either windows 10 ltsc or mint XFCE. and retiring this as soon as possible, to let it rest, as a symbol and legacy.
P.S. I wrote this on the laptop, and the battery can still last like 4 hours of light browsing on power saving mode.