It's not Linux, it's people. People have abandoned old hardware. Since it's Linux, you could just work yourself on making it compatible again. No one cares to do that.

Also, I don't have that problem. Void Linux runs just fine on my 20 year old laptop. Lots of slowdowns once you do stuff like browsing the Internet, but just opening vim and managing text works great. But yeah.. the thing is a brick and if modern laptops didn't all have shit keyboards, I wouldn't have bothered in the first place.

If only modern laptops (and desktops) didn't all had hardware backdoors. http://0gitnick.i2p/2021/01/22/article-you-should-be-using-an-old-computer/

That ship kind of sailed. Old hardware isn't useful for the things I do.

This is the computer I use specifically for testing software designed for old computers.

Then use an OS the software was designed for in the first place.

Our intentional built-in obsolescence

His Inspiron 5100 was released about 2004. That's a full life. Put it out to pasture.

I had one that old, and it died. My oldest working machine is from '08, and another is from '09, and they are showing their age with hardware errors. I expect them to die any moment. It won't be worth replacing components, even if it turns out to be cheap. And I personally couldn't, for example, replace capacitors on a modern computer without destroying it. They consume more power in a year than they're worth, anyway, so it wouldn't be cost effective, which his bullshit environmental analysis ignores.

At some point the one guy complaining his ancient box doesn't work will be the only one who notices, because he has the only working one.

I know it's hard to accept, for myself as well, but it seems that the following logic applies everywhere, and most apparent at high tech: If you can't make it yourself then you don't deserve to use it. How many of them individuals or small groups have the means to make their own hardware? But everyone seems to have the needs to use it, and the needs grow up with bloatware, as they always do under consumerism.

That ship has sailed, too. I can make pretty much none of the things I use. I don't know how to build a house. I can't make a screen, toilet, frying pan, dish washer... looking around me right now, I see exactly zero things that I could have made myself. Not even a bottle out of glass or a simple book. Nevermind the clothes I'm wearing. I can't even make the fabric the cloth is made from.

Thinking back, it started around the time the pocket watch was introduced. So some 200 odd years ago? At least I think basically none of the people owning a pocket watch could have made it by themselves.

I don't think it's a bad thing, either. Someone that knows how to make pocket watches can make a living from it because basically no one else has this specialized knowledge. And everyone else isn't forced to waste time acquiring not only the knowledge, but also the skill to make a pocket watch. Everyone wins.

It's when there is major gatekeeping going on to prevent others from becoming pocket watch makers, that there is a problem.

Cheapskateguide aka "I want others to provide solutions to my problems free of charge".

If that dude wants to see support for his hardware that old, he better write it himself. It's not locked in like the bullshit that Apple puts out.