I’ve been stock-piling electronics that either people throw away, or things I bought 2nd-hand only to find they are broken.

Looks like the right to repair law is in very slow motion. Not yet enacted be the European Commission. And once it is, member states have like 2 years to actually enact it in their law. Probably even more time before consumers begin to see results.

(edit) I think some US states were the first to enact right to repair laws. So some consumers could perhaps pretend to be from one of those states to demand things like service manuals. But parts and repair is likely more out of reach ATM.

  • Darkassassin07
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    5 days ago

    When it comes to parts/repair, (most) Computers are a bit of a different beast than other electronics. They’re specifically built/designed to use standardized connections and form factors that allow you to swap a large variety of parts from a wide range of manufacturers as desired. You often don’t need or even want original replacement parts as you upgrade to better/faster hardware piecemeal.

    There’s few other product categories that achieve the same level of inter-compatibility or upgradability.

    Compared to something like a smart phone for example; where parts have to be made for that specific devices make/model, and are often explicitly designed to make this impossible/impractical for any third party to do via thing’s like serialized part-pairing, while companies also restrict the supply of OEM components to end-users or ‘unauthorized’ repair centers… This is where right to repair laws really come into play.