A common selling point of Linux is hardware support, especially for computers with lower configurations or older computers. Today, I want to bring a different opinion today: Linux can absolutely extend the use of older hardware, but by no means will it save it. I have a few lower end and older computers: the HP Compaq 8000 and the ASUS E403NA. I want to use each computer as test cases and demonstrations, so the next time you attempt to “revive” a computer, you set your expectations appropriately.

(Lack of) Security Guarantees

The first thing to get out of the way is security updates. Whether you’re using a computer from 14 years ago or a computer from the current generation, it’s important to understand security updates. For example, a while back I reviewed the experience of using Linux on a 2017 MacBook Air and as the sun sets for macOS Monterey, Linux is a major step up than using macOS Monterey, which has pretty much hit its end of life and as Apple abandons Intel for their Apple Silicon. That’s a good reason to consider using Linux on an older machine.

That’s where we need to talk about the ugly truths with end of life hardware. While Apple makes it easier to gauge hardware releases and security updates, on Windows or Linux machines, this can be more difficult. For example, the HP Compaq first came out in 2009 and was made available only to business customers (it even has Intel’s Core certification). The final firmware update for the Compaq was shipped in 2013. Now one shady thing both HP and Apple do is they never tell you that you are running a device with firmware with zero security patches. Apple is even worse in this regard because there’s no indication macOS won’t get updates until they stop.

Your hardware needs to be updated frequently, especially when there are vulnerabilities against physical hardware. One example was earlier this year, QuarksLabs found a serious flaw in TPM 2.0, so if you use an older version of TPM (you should), you would have missed the numerous security updates related to TPM since then. Not just TPM, but attacks like LogoFAIL exist as well.

It’s important to remember that if you use computer for sensitive operations that require addition security, like banking for example, take extreme caution with using hardware that won’t get security updates. If your device is no longer receiving security updates, installing Linux can help as a “badness reduction” measure, but it won’t fix the fact that you no longer get any hardware updates. It reduces the harm from the operating system level, but it won’t solve some crippling hardware flaws.

Limitations

One of the major selling points of Linux is its low performance. There are some desktop environments or window managers on Linux that can run on incredibly low-end hardware. For example, I have the ASUS E403NA—a laptop with less than 4 GB of RAM and with one of the classic 2017 Intel Celeron. It’s really important to acknowledge that the weaker the computer, the more it will limit your options to do specific things. I have to run the Sway window manager, because running most desktop environments lead to really slow performance.

Okay, it’s not that bad. On the HP Compaq, GNOME performs generally pretty well. While loading times themselves are slow, GNOME is actually fairly capable on 4 GB of RAM, it’s just older hard drives. It’s also very capable at general web browsing and even watching videos.

Software Support

One of the major problems with the HP Compaq in modern day is its ability to play contemporary video games or run OpenGL programs. I couldn’t get multiple modern video games to run, because most games I tried spit out OpenGL or DirectX errors.

  • The Grim Fandango Remastered encounters errors because it requires OpenGL version 3.3 or higher.
  • The Core 2 Duo only supports up to OpenGL 2.1 as indicated if you run Minetest, which runs at an average of 20 FPS.
  • Despite meeting every minimum requirement except the GPU, Rebel Galaxy fails to launch at all.
  • ABZÛ and Cuphead won’t run because the Core 2 Duo doesn’t support DirectX 11.

Now I did get some games to run, the best was Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee, which was still unsuccessful at playing any of the rendered videos, featuring the good ol’ 90s scan lines. Aside from this, the game seems to be completely playable despite its downsides.

To push the hardware a little more, I also tried running the original Psychonauts. While not encountering any initial installation issues. the game practically ran at the rate of a slideshow and was unplayable.

What all of this shows is older hardware cannot keep up with the pace of software. You can’get in on the latest AI craze. You can’t do proper programming because compiling programs takes literal hours. That doesn’t mean it’s incapable, but there are serious limitation with what you can or can’t do.

Legacy Cables

The other problem is legacy cables. If older computers like the HP Compaq, you are effectively forced into specific display cables. For example, I usually use a lot of HDMI cables. But with the HP Compaq, the only cables that are supported are VGA and DisplayPort cables.

Now, I just so happen to have a pair of VGA cables lying around after years and years of using them. But for older computers, especially when you start getting into the early 2000s, maybe the 90s, you might not exactly have a FireWire cable lying around for that PowerMac G3 of yours.

The “Community” Doesn’t Know or Care

My favorite part about aging hardware (and open source software in general) is a lot of people will tell you there’s a community out there that develops a whole manner of firmware in case you’re having trouble. Indeed, if it’s very common firmware like ThinkPads or Microsoft Surfaces, hardware that’s actively used, people will care a lot about it. But when it comes to end of life hardware, this so called “community” is very unsympathetic and will not help you because the companies that abandoned the software to begin with are very unsympathetic about it.

Last year, openSUSE, Fedora, and Ubuntu have all announced initiatives to advance the x86 compilation of their packages to the next level from v2 to v3. Unfortunately, there have been people who continue to outcry these deprecation initiatives, but openSUSE’s polls show very few people understand these architectural differences, including me by the way.

If these changes and how these developers responding is an indication of anything, it shows that developers like those at Fedora, Canonical, and SUSE all want to move faster and older hardware support hinders progress and eats up developer time. I can’t imagine a single developer who would volunteer to discuss these issues when they would rather spend it programming. 32-bit hardware was dropped on many distributions for the same reason. As much as I would like us to be able to use these computers in the future, there’s a real human cost to the people who have to keep the 32-bit or even the PowerPC and it can’t go on forever. Think about it: if you are using a computer which no longer gets security updates or manufacturer supports, obviously with extenuating circumstances (economy, social change, etc), there’s very few reasons to use hardware that won’t be supported. If you’re sick of hardware that won’t be supported, maybe it’s time to support hardware makers that give their products a long shelf life.

B… But the Environment…

My favorite excuse is “using an older machine will save the environment.” Or the classic " you can breathe new life into your old computer." I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but in the case of HP Compaq, I would argue that continued use of older computers isn’t just bad for the environment, it’s actively worse compared to other alternatives.

While the Compaq might be lacking in gaming capabilities, it’s still really good at word processing, general web browsing, or some basic office work in something like LibreOffice. The problem isn’t so much in what it can do, but rather, what other devices you might or could own can do. We live in a day and age where smart phones have become very integrated into society. If all you can do is run a web browser, you are better off using your phone, a device that doesn’t require nearly as much space or power.So many people in today’s day and age don’t own computers, it wouldn’t be crime to tell someone to just their phone. Most modern smart phones do some things worse like tinkering and gaming, but when it comes to doing what most people actually do.

Takeaways

Now considering you made it this far and you haven’t left an angry comment in the video, the important thing here is presenting guidelines that we can use to understand how we can use technology better. We need our devices to receive updates and when they aren’t it means it’s time to migrate to newer devices that will. Sure, Linux has options that can save older hardware, but the slow decline of software that will work and the limits set purely because of old hardware. Maintaining old hardware has a cost: it’s a cost for the developers who have to keep it functional, on you because parts might no longer be available, and the real environmental cost when modern products might be a better alternative.

At the end of the day, everyone’s situation is different and it’s all about what works for you. I’m not going to hunt you down because you still have Debian computers running on PowerPC. It’s about making smart decisions about how we can use these tools the best.

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