[weblacky]

I'll be honest, I go about this from the opposite direction. Open systems and responsibly-sourced components are two different ideas.

To me ethical decisions concerning me are on my end (decisions I make within the confinement of reality), I can't do anything about the past (especially when I wasn't involved with the product at that point).

To me, ethics revolve around what I can and should buy, what waste should it produce (and is that acceptable), when would I use it (do I really need it), how long do I expect it to last, how would I dispose of it. For a Windows laptop, there are only two answers for this criteria that come to mind:

Dell Business or Workstation-class laptops or Lenovo Thinkpads.

Why did I just say that?

Because those are the only companies and product families that have many year part life cycles (5 years active support then 5 years parts support with Dell, for 10 years total per business model), will sell you parts directly, and will provide you with technical information to do the work yourself (should you want to).

No other laptop manufacturers do this that I've heard of (please correct me if I'm wrong). Buying right, you can keep a system going 10+ years.

Conversely, if you spend the big bucks on a very tricked out MacBook (I know you said you didn't want one), you can expect most recent models to last 8+ years of supported life (less new batteries). I'm using a MacBook pro retina 2012, upgraded a few bits inside (new SSD, battery, and 802.11AC chipset upgraded), and it's still supported by Apple on their newest OS. Likely I'll be abandoned in 2020 or 2021 (but who knows).

I think the ethical things you do in life is to repair what's broken, buy things you'll use, save things from the land-fill, help others repair their items to save them both money, time, and the pollution of throwing things away. Keep things going (like cars) as long as you responsibly can. Learn how to repair those things and how to spot products that allow you to fix things (versus competing products that don't).

I upgrade Desktops PCs like 9-12 years at a time and laptops about 7-9 years. I'll go longer if I can. Cell Phones should last a minimum of 5 years, I'm using an iPhone 6s (bought on Launch day).

I think consumers are responsible for their buying, pollution, usage, re-use, and disposal of items. Electronics are a new thing, Cars you could keep going 40+ years (unless you get in a wreck), most of the time (that includes ECUs and Sensors). Electronics are just the "guts" inside products (means to an end) for most companies and after the product life expectancy has been reached...they feel it's not their problem. I'd like to know enough to repair stuff that's doable. But special chips, encrypted items, etc...make that not always feasible.

It's not a perfect system and laptop and mobile electronics are the WORST of this issue (designed tight to life expectancy, fast-moving, easily damaged, etc). So the most responsible thing I can think of is: Make it last.

To the point that people around how wonder how you did it. You can buy nicer items, with longer lives, and get something that works, and not be obsessed with having the newest item (if the newest item doesn't actually improve anything you care about). And try to pass on your still-working items to others for a fair deal. The longer a product is in use, the more utility it provided.

The sin here is always buying the newest thing, throwing things away that still have useful utility and life left, and not dealing with what you already own.