A while back there was some debate about the Linux kernel dropping support for some very old GPUs. (I can’t remember the exact models, but they were roughly from the late 90’s)

It spurred a lot of discussion on how many years of hardware support is reasonable to expect.

I would like to hear y’alls views on this. What do you think is reasonable?

The fact that some people were mad that their 25 year old GPU wouldn’t be officially supported by the latest Linux kernel seemed pretty silly to me. At that point, the machine is a vintage piece of tech history. Valuable in its own right, and very cool to keep alive, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable for the devs to drop it after two and a half decades.

I think for me, a 10 year minimum seems reasonable.

And obviously, much of this work is for little to no pay, so love and gratitude to all the devs that help keep this incredible community and ecosystem alive!

And don’t forget to Pay for your free software!!!

  • Courant d'air 🍃@jlai.lu
    18·
    4 months ago

    I’d say more than 10 years now. Computers evolved a lot more between the 90s and the 00s than between the 00s and now, my old laptop is 10 years old and it’s still perfectly running linux, and I hope it will keep running for years.

    The problem is more hardware obsolescence, it’s a Acer so every part of it is slowly falling apart (keyboard, screen, battery) and OEM parts are impossible to find after all those years. I guess this problem is less important for desktop.

    • EvolLove@noauthority.social
      4·
      4 months ago

      @Courantdair @Lettuceeatlettuce

      Running an Acer laptop that is 9-10 years old. Everything works fine, but last summer my harddrive crashed. 8 gb ram and 2 ssd disks on 2tb each. And it is running smooth. I also have no plans on getting a new computer.

      I think it is the kids who play hardware consuming games who drive the evolution of computers.

      • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
        1·
        4 months ago

        Important to note how the design of the hardware is important in enabling this, if you don’t have replaceable parts then the entire thing dies when one component does.

        It’s really the one major complaint i have about my pixel 3, the lack of an SD card slot immediately puts a bit of a lifespan on the entire device.