68kMLA

shouldn't be divisive. working screen > bad screen. i support modern replacement efforts for lcd panels.

Working screen > bad screen, but original screen > modern screen.
If there was a laptop I really loved for the form factor, and my only option for using it was a modern reproduction screen, I'd take it. But the original screen's appearance/quality is a huge part of the appeal for me - be it passive matrix or active.

If you can find a panel in the right size and resolution, and work out how to interface it, I think it's a great idea. Though I suspect that could be a big "if" unless you're willing to hack up the bezel to accommodate a display of a different size and aspect ratio - a lot of the mono PowerBooks whose displays suffer the most are 16:10 640x400, which is a bit of an oddball.

you could play around with bezels and such. there's a few gameboy replacement LCDs that do different tricks. generally they pixel double. the one for the OG DMG gameboy is actually 4:3 and is partially hidden under the housing.

When it comes to replacing outright broken or unusably deteriorating panels, I think it'd be silly to be purist about using originals vs. modern replacements. Even if replacements for a broken one that don't necessarily have known deterioration issues are around, that is a small parts pool, so I'd figure purists would rather you'd use a replacement as to keep those for themselves :-D