Linux Won't Save Your Hardware. But You Might As Well Try...

Linux can run great on old computers, but not every PC or Mac is up to the task. Here's why.

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Chapters:
0:00 Bye Security!
3:38 Far Too Limiting
8:14 "Nobody" Cares
11:45 The Dying Planet
14:18 Takeaways

[owlmostdead]

Outdated firmware in 99% of cases is only useful for hands on exploitation, e.g. I have your machine physically. Remote intrusion due to outdated firmware on a up-to-date Linux install is highly highly unlikely. I wouldn’t be worried about it.

[alexstone]

I am a nerd but i can guarantee nobody updates their UEFI, firmware version, unless something is broken

[stephenanthony]

I'm pretty sure my main laptop would not be alive without Ubuntu.

[max_uaminecraft]

please everyone throw away your old laptops and desktops away and use new devices for "security", itll make second hand prices much cheaper for us!

[bluephreakr]

Let's understand something about technology that a lot of people fail to understand, but a lot of enthusiasts in the vintage computing space will address; a computer should be seen as a device which functions with software of its era. Sure, Linux can drag older machines kicking and screaming into modernity, and it's fun to push the envelope with them, but if the machine struggled to run Half-Life 2 back in its day, it'll _still_ struggle doing it today, and be good for what it was good for.

The _one_ saving grace that stops these machines from being corpses _is_ the fact all hardware can be given a second, alternative use. If the machine is not too old, but can't run Windows 11 and there is no interest in Linux for general computing, it can _still_ become; a NAS, a games server, a network bridge, a streaming content ingest, or _whatever else_ you can possibly conceive in your mind, and used beyond your wildest imagination. If it's older-than-dirt, then _I guess_ if it runs a web browser okay, have it be used for guests or donate the hardware where the internals can be re-used for something else, such as a web kiosk. And if it's somewhere in the middle, they can still be fantastic education machines for children, a cheap way into software development for endeavouring persons in need of a new skill or a half-decent office machine in a work setting.

Ultimately, how a machine is used (or re-used) is entirely up to however much money is going to be spent for it, or however much effort you are willing to fetch ancient hardware fit for re-purposing inside an older machine for cheap. Old machines aren't _no_ good, they're good as the day they were built. It's just a matter of where your imagination can take it, while respecting its limitations.

_Quick edit about the power efficiency thing_ — depending on the form factor, you can replace the PSU! Maybe not for a laptop, but for TFX and ATX you can often find aftermarket supplies fit for your needs, and as mentioned in the video _extenuating circumstances_ may make it cheaper to maintain what we have in the short-term, so that work can be done to gain new hardware in the long-term. But if the "Work" doesn't require strict time sensitivity, there's no reason to _not_ use whatever's on-hand to get a job done.

[mateusmeloxyz]

But the thing is: old hardware can't keep up with new software not because old hardware is slow, but because most new written software is slow.

[Driskoll]

There is a misconception that mostly newcomers to Linux tend to make, which is that Linux is designed for old hardware. This is not the case, if you want to get all of its features and keep a better workflow you will need newer, more robust hardware. It does have tweaks and distros that will run on old hardware, but this is only with the idea of repurposing that old PC probably as a media center or text editor. If you really don't see any use case for an old PC, it's probably because its hardware is just too old, no OS can save that.

[hootiebubbabuddhabelly]

Do NOT get rid of your old PCs. How else are you going to get onto a network to see my big fat "I TOLD YOU SO!" notices?!?!?

[MrVecheater]

Energy efficiency only contributes to a small percentage of carbon emissions over the lifetime of a end user device. Most of the emissions come from the manufacturing process and disposal. It's still a better option for casual users.

Realistically the human cost of maintaining legacy hardware will be there regardless. It's unlikely we'll manage to end poverty globally during our lifetime. Hence legacy hardware is here to stay anyway. The only trade-off here is cost vs security. OpenGL compatibility is important to mention but won't affect the decision to buy legacy hardware

[pip]

OpenSUSE Tumbleweed runs great on my 2011 HP 8200 Elite SFF with a 1050 ti, 20 GB of RAM, and an i5-2400, including with Wayland on the 555 Nvidia driver. It's not my main machine but sadly my Acer Nitro 5 which is a whole decade newer gets static shutdowns when I use Linux on it so I have to perform a power drain, especially on the Windows SSD but the second instance was so bad that the laptop would even hard shutdown on the Linux SSD. For that reason, the laptop runs Windows 11 and the old desktop runs Linux. I am very excited to build a beefy new AMD system and put Linux on that.

[arduinoguru]

For lowEnd/Old computers never ever install Gnome or KDE their newer version are overkill, XFCE are barely the limit for these computers, you should considering LXDE as starting point (I install it recently on Pentium 4/ 256MB RAM) old Computer and works nice, and I run it with latest version of Debian 32 bit.

[schneensch]

Sure, not updated firmware can theoretically pose a security risk. But has anybody ever actually been exploited by that stuff? I think the number of times such attacks were actually performed are extremely low, and that other attack vektors are way more dangerous.

[zekicay]

I completely disagree. Making a new device and properly disposing of an old one takes a lot more resources than the power the old computer will use. The old computer will still have a majority of security features of the new one if you install a modern os and modern software: ASLR, stack canaries, containerization / sandboxing... It won't have encrypted virtual memory sandbox (what Windows call VBS) but it will still be much better than running old obsolete and insecure software. The best reason to buy new hardware is to get much better performance and that few newer security features, but let's not pretend that it's for the environment.

Your remark regarding HDMI and DisplayPort is completely off. DisplayPort 1.1 that your computer has is fine outputting 1440p60 or 4k30 - same as 4 year old Intel's 10th generation Core i laptop with HDMI 1.4.

[MrTrollMedic]

Re: environmental issues, best part of using older laptops is the fact that if your battery is old enough, you can replace it.

[moguus]

6:19 you can add a dedicated video card that still supports windows 10, it improves the graphics part of system

[Marioa]

No, that's not true, that's impossible! ~~ Luke Skywalker (an Linux user) when Vader (you) tells him this.

[damienkram]

3:50 It was outdated at the conveyor belt and still they selling it. Outdating is not about date of manufacture, its about use cases. If it is still useful - it's not outdated.

[qxlf]

i had this discussion once on the Suse discord. i asked if it would be possible for Aeon (there immutable version) to get Legacy Bios support. they told me no and a very good reason as to why the no was given was something along the lines of "until what point do we need to support old hardware?"

[Mr_MiRok]

При переходе на новые технологии некоторые (возможно большинство), не задумываются об оптимизации. Из-за этого возникает ситуация, вроде у тебя современная техника, а прога клешнеруких виснит из-за 1000+ прослоек которое нужно пройти данным для получения результата...

[Gigi-zykx]

I did put Puppy Linux on a old nuc. It worked surprisingly. I don't use the nuc for anything but I found it in an old box and it just seemed like the right thing to do in the moment. So I did it and afterwards I felt as if I accomplished something....I'm just not sure what. Whatever