>>1744165
>I think anyone can just use a 15+ year old computer full time at this point until MS decides that all programs you use need to be approved and signed or some shit.
You can, but you have to deal with the compromises.
>linux will still run, but modern distros keep raising hardware requirements, and support for older hardware is fading. Some have already abandoned 32‑bit entirely.
>browsing the web becomes a struggle. Relying on forks and stopgap browsers just to scrape by, while modern sites pile on more JavaScript than those old CPUs and meager RAM can handle.
>the hardware itself is fragile. Capacitors swell, boards corrode, and when a part fails (be it a fan, a stick of RAM, a power supply, or even the CPU/GPU) you realize it’s been out of production for years. And if you do find replacements, they’ll probably cost more to get.
>networking doesn’t care for nostalgia. As newer Wi‑Fi standards march forward, older cards are left behind, unable to connect to the very web they once opened up.
>even an SSD, that small miracle of speed, ends up shackled by ancient interfaces like SATA I. You know what it could be, but the old machine is stuck by its old instructions set. Modern storage speeds have spoiled us.
That’s just the tragedy of it all.
Vintage computers being tossed to e‑waste, stripped of purpose when they still have life in them. Felt that ache of seeing something still capable, still alive, written off as obsolete. And all the while, people shrug and say: “lol stop being poor, just upgrade.”
But time is a relentless enemy. We’ll go through the same cycle again once Sandy Bridge, Haswell, and Skylake machines start being dismissed as relics.
Just so that this doesn’t sound like willy wrote this, there’s still the beauty of keeping old machines alive as long as one can, even when told they need to upgrade. There will always be room for revival projects, lightweight distros, emulation, and creative reuse. Nothing stays alive on its own though, it lasts only because someone decide it’s worth keeping alive.