Lyons in beta

2025-08-10

My daughter needs a laptop for school. I have a 10 year old Macbook Pro that works great other than 1. no longer being supported by macOS and 2. having a 10 year old battery. Fixing the first issue was as easy as installing Ubuntu, which is pretty gods damn easy. The second issue was trickier.

Battery replacements for that model and people willing to do them exist, but by the time all is said and done it isn't exactly cost-effective vs a cheap Chromebook which is all she actually needs in her situation. I'm a big believer in the right to repair and repairability, I'm just not particularly good at any of it. The only way to improve is to practice though, so I decided to risk some money, the laptop, and my safety, by replacing the battery myself.

After 90 minutes following a guide that felt like it stopped at the half-way point, I'm happy to say the laptop is sitting behind me right now going through "battery conditioning", which is apparently a thing you have to do with new batteries. We'll see how well it works for its intended purpose, and I'm pretty sure I need to replace the trackpad cable because they are (apparently) notoriously flakey, but I am definitely living this quote right now:

“I am smiling a great smile. The smile of a man who fucked with his [laptop] and didn’t break it.”

- Mark Watney, The Martian



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