communism , 1 month ago

The thing is, Linux always gets touted as the way to save old hardware. Win 11 not supporting a bunch of perfectly good older computers is leading to a massive e-waste wave. I understand that kernel devs mostly do it for free, and resources are limited for maintaining support for hardware few use anymore, but I think having a way to viably daily drive old hardware is really important for reducing e-waste and also just saving people’s money. I don’t like buying new tech unless it’s to replace something beyond repair—ie not just an upgrade for the sake of upgrading.

Obviously the problem is more socially systemic than just the decisions of Linux devs. I think the release cycle of new hardware is way too quick—if it were slower obviously that would reduce the workload for kernel devs, so hardware could be supported for longer (as they have less new hardware to work on supporting). And more generally we should have a mode of production not centred around profit, so that people don’t get punished (as in, they’re not getting paid but could be compensated for their time if they worked on something else) for spending time developing kernel support for old hardware.