The beginning of the end for my iBook?

I’m a little worried about my iBook.

All of a sudden, the touchpad has started to behave badly. Sometimes it works fine, at other times it has a mind of its own. Of course, this could have something to do with my installation of OS 10.4 (though I really don’t think that’s it), and a mouse plugged into the USB port works just fine.

But I am worried that the end may be near.

It’s not entirely unexpected because this computer will be three years old in November. In my opinion, there are significant advantages to a laptop computer, but one of the disadvantages is they don’t last as long as desktop computers simply because they get abused– moved around a lot, jostled about, etc. And I should point out that this computer is really the computer in my life. Sure, I have a computer in my office at school, but I use this computer literally every single day and often for hours and hours at a time, even in my office and even though I have a perfectly fine computer on my desk there. Anyway, after three years of constant use, you’d start to get a little ratty after three years, too.

I’m not inclined to buy a computer this year, so hopefully I can get this thing to hang on for another 8 or 10 months. I’d really like it to last until the next generation of Apple laptops comes around, but I don’t know if any computer could last that long.