Curiosity: why do so many people only use Linux on old hardware?

[sydbat]

Hey everyone!

New to the forums here (I am sure this will age well...). This may have been discussed before, but I am curious about why so many people only use Linux (any flavour) on old hardware. Yes, as an exclusive Linux user for the past couple of decades I see the appeal, especially when wanting to somewhat revitalize instead of recycle, and the cost of new hardware can be prohibitive. And some only have the option of older hardware. But Linux is so powerful, why does it seem that newer hardware is almost a fringe? I am probably completely wrong, but sometimes it feels like this is the case.

Discuss.

[absque fenestris]

What's old is very relative - and silicone stuff ages surprisingly quickly ...

Just for comparison:

my Rollei 6 x 6 is from 1954
my Nikon F2 with the fabulous macro is from 1978
my turntable with the SME tonearm is probably from 1973 and a lot of my music stuff is from the 80s and 90s
my shopping bike is from 1987, my mountain bike from 1991

All of these devices are still working properly and can be repaired if necessary.

[LanceM]

Several reasons come to mind. Money, wanting the older Legacy hardware that avoids secure boot etc. Daily use that doesn't require advanced gaming makes the older hardware completely acceptable and speed wise indistinguishable from faster new. A late model Win 7 machine with an SSD is an example. Some are still hung on Windows 10 and have their older one for Linux. My main PC is an i-5 10400 with SSD. I despise Windows. However if a PC has too old of hardware then they are slow. I like performance.

[karlchen]

Trivial answer to the question, "Why so many people only use Linux on old hardware?":
Cannot speak on behalf of other users. Yet, in my case it is pretty simple:

When I started switching my private computers to Linux more than 10 years ago, they were all brand new.
Then something really frightening started to happen. The machines shared the same fate as myself. They grew older every year.
By now they have all passed the end of their first decade more or less clearly. But they still function properly, from a technical point of view.

But sooner or later they will have to retire for either of two reasons:

• they will reach the end of their machine lives and pass away
• they will not be powerful enough any longer in order to fulfill the hardware resource requirements imposed to them by the software, which grows more and more gready year by year.

[LanceM]

Moved to chat - good.

[sydbat]

Moved to chat - good.

Sorry about posting in the wrong area.

All good reasons. I understand them all, and have done them myself (one of my boxes is at least 10 years old, and the one I am typing this on is about 2 years old). And I know that someone coming from a different OS is better off trying Linux out on an older machine.

I guess my question, more appropriately, might be - why don't more people, when upgrading hardware or complete systems, just run Linux in the first place? As their daily driver? Not counting those who have never used Linux before (the ones who find their Windows or Apple box is running slower and go out and buy a whole new computer). Maybe it is because Linux allows for the productive use of older hardware for a significantly longer time? And we just like that things simply work, but we like to tinker as well? Just 'shower thoughts'...

Thank you for your answers so far. Please continue.

[Moem]

All my hardware runs Linux*. Older, newer, all of it. It's just what I use nowadays.

*Yes, that does include my smartphone.

[BigEasy]

New to the forums here (I am sure this will age well...). This may have been discussed before, but I am curious about why so many people only use Linux (any flavour) on old hardware.

You forgot to ask why Linus users are old men. They use old hardware, they used free software, they used classic desktops. Still interesting why?
Answer: if they had enough money they would buy a new computer and Windows and other software. But they do not have.

[RollyShed]

Every computer except Mac, comes with Windows. So installing Linux means the computer is not new. We're really haggling over how old. The older a computer the easier it is to install Linux and I know from experience there are some really "curly" ones out there as far as getting into the BIOS to have a USB as first boot for installation and Legacy if needed.

The computers I'm installing on the owner often says/thinks, "We're thinking of chucking it because it is too old."
Maybe only 5 years old!
What!
That's near new.

[freshminted]

You forgot to ask why Linus users are old men. They use old hardware, they used free software, they used classic desktops. Still interesting why?
Answer: if they had enough money they would buy a new computer and Windows and other software. But they do not have.

We spend all our money on keeping old "chick magnet" cars going and booze.

[ajgreeny]

Every computer except Mac, comes with Windows. So installing Linux means the computer is not new. We're really haggling over how old. The older a computer the easier it is to install Linux and I know from experience there are some really "curly" ones out there as far as getting into the BIOS to have a USB as first boot for installation and Legacy if needed.

The computers I'm installing on the owner often says/thinks, "We're thinking of chucking it because it is too old."
Maybe only 5 years old!
What!
That's near new.

Not quite every computer!

The last four machines I have bought have come with no licensed copy of Windows, though they did have Windows installed by the seller just to check they worked.
They also had free-dos installed.

I scrapped the OSs on disk ànd installed my own choice of Linux, either Mint-Xfce or Xubuntu, both of which have worked without problem.
I have not used Windows since 2005 with XP.

[DPM]

But Linux is so powerful, why does it seem that newer hardware is almost a fringe?

• Driver problems when the hardware is too new.
• Linux doesn't need a powerful PC for everyday tasks.
• Gaming with latest hardware is mostly under Windows anyway.

That said, I built up two Linux PCs last year - but deliberately with hardware that had been released already a year before because it was good enough, delivered good bang for the buck, had no driver problems, teething troubles had already been ironed out, and there were enough reviews to go by.

[MAlfare]

New to the forums here (I am sure this will age well...). This may have been discussed before, but I am curious about why so many people only use Linux (any flavour) on old hardware.

Where do you get off saying that's the case?
tunnel vision, echo-chamber?

[Moonstone Man]

You forgot to ask why Linus users are old men. They use old hardware, they used free software, they used classic desktops. Still interesting why?
Answer: if they had enough money they would buy a new computer and Windows and other software. But they do not have.

Good grief, what an enormously sweeping over-generalisation, and absolutely, completely and utterly wrong.

I am an old man, and I have the money, and I have the best of the top of the line equipment. I choose Linux because I don't like Windows. Other people might just try Linux on old hardware just for shits and giggles. You know, for the heck of it? For the sheer fun of the adventure in continuing one's learning?

Speak only for yourself, not for others.

[AZgl1800]

Good grief, what an enormously sweeping over-generalisation, and absolutely, completely and utterly wrong.

I am an old man, and I have the money, and I have the best of the top of the line equipment. I choose Linux because I don't like Windows. Other people might just try Linux on old hardware just for shits and giggles. You know, for the heck of it? For the sheer fun of the adventure in continuing one's learning?

Speak only for yourself, not for others.

I turn 78 in just about 6 hours from now.

the hardware references are useless, I use Linux because I grew tired of Microsoft deciding what, and when, they will turn my hardware into a Blue Screen that warns me that turning it off prematurely will destroy the OS.

this laptop is now 18 months old, it was a treat to myself to get "the latest and greatest" to enjoy in my retirement years. I had 5 or 6 older laptops that go back maybe 20 years? Tried different versions of Linux on them and sadly, the hardware was so anemic, I installed something that would find the Internet and gave them away.

I'm down to 3 now, all of them ASUS something or other, 12 years old, 5 years old, and now 2 years old...
Probably won't buy any new hardware unless a Lightning bolt ruins one.

.

[Moonstone Man]

the hardware references are useless, I use Linux because I grew tired of Microsoft deciding what, and when, they will turn my hardware into a Blue Screen that warns me that turning it off prematurely will destroy the OS.

I didn't expand on my reasons for disliking Windows but those are among them. Included in my reasons are the complete lack of control over the glaringly white, and jarringly stark, sharp-edged UI, MS' half-hearted attempts at providing a dark mode that doesn't affect applications, having to fork out cash just to get a reasonable UI that only comes a fraction of the way to suiting my tastes, not to mention the advertisements, flashing, flipping, rotating icons, social media integration, constant nagging from the system menu and system tray alerts, the telemetry getting sent back to MS servers, the inability to block updates, so on and so forth.

To put it simply, there is only one thing on this planet that I have a deeper, more abiding contempt of...

Blowflies.

And for me, the gap between Windows and blowflies is very narrow indeed.

[LanceM]

To put it simply, there is only one thing on this planet that I have a deeper, more abiding contempt of...

Blowflies.

Or what they land on

[Moonstone Man]

To put it simply, there is only one thing on this planet that I have a deeper, more abiding contempt of...

Blowflies.

Or what they land on

No, I have a strong stomach from raising seven rug rats into adulthood. To get a taste of how I feel about Windows, imagine yourself bathing in a lukewarm trough of someone else's dirty bathwater.

[LanceM]

No, I have a strong stomach from raising seven rug rats into adulthood. To get a taste of how I feel about Windows, imagine yourself bathing in a lukewarm trough of someone else's dirty bathwater.

Been there done that. Packed water from the spring for the whole family from age 7 to 12. We got plumbing after that. Had to bathe in brothers or Pops used water. But did get an added kettle of wood stove heated water. Actually Windows disgusts me and makes me mad. Today I was going to update my copy that I rarely refer to. Hadn't been updated in months. Showed an upgrade, so I checked the size using Google - 3GB. I get 250 KB/sec. I shut it down. Maybe someday, not today. It probably would fail anyway. I call them the monkeys at Microsoft.

[Moonstone Man]

Been there done that. Packed water from the spring for the whole family from age 7 to 12. We got plumbing after that. Had to bathe in brothers or Pops used water. But did get an added kettle of wood stove heated water.

lol : same here, in a tin bath in front of the fireplace.

Actually Windows disgusts me ...

That's what the mind image I created was supposed to do to you.

... and makes me mad. Today I was going to update my copy that I rarely refer to. Hadn't been updated in months. Showed an upgrade, so I checked the size using Google - 3GB. I get 250 KB/sec. I shut it down. Maybe someday, not today. It probably would fail anyway. I call them the monkeys at Microsoft.

My collection of Windows software has gone from several hundred GB down to 5GB. Even now I am contemplating killing the lot and rescuing a couple of very much unused 250GB Samsung Pro SSDs for other purposes. The only time I boot Windows now is to allow it to do its hour-long update charade every six months. There is no software installed at all. Unfortunately my GPS needs Windows in order to update its maps, but my youngest son is a Windows technician and he is easily accessible so I can just dump the GPS updates onto him. Hmmm... I can actually go 100% completely Windows free.

<ssh in to primary server>
rm -rf /media/rooter/Samba
<syncs the main server to the backup servers>
sh replicate.sh
<removes detritus>
sudo apt remove --purge *samba*
<done>
exit