I was going to ask why this is still being discussed till I looked at the comments. Not much sign of actual discussion there :(

There is also Devuan, which my machines use.

Ditto. I've not touched gnome for years now. I have a WM that is tailored *exactly* as I want it. Oh, and yes I do what a proper title bar with 3d buttons that do something useful.

Some people just have to have the best (for some undefined value of 'best') whether they need it or not. Me? I just go for the minimum that will do what I want... without throwing loads of crap at me.

Darwin Accelerators
Cos users become oblivious to their surroundings.

Your second point is far and away the most significant of all comments.
It applies right across the board - not just software, and indeed not just humans. Look what happens when you move the cat basket!

The people I work for gave me a smartphone once. In {mmmfty}{mmmf} years it was the only bit of electronic apparatus I ever lost my temper with. They replaced the bits with a nice dumb one, and have had to admit that I'm the only employee who they never seem to have any problems contacting.

I don't have speakers on my computer, and the external amp is only on when I want to listen to music.

Having worked on similarly ancient high power devices. It's not just changing a single thyristor. At these power levels everything has to be critically matched and tuned. Get it wrong and the instant you draw any significant power it goes bang.

Also, that will be part of a bank of similar units which also have to have pretty similar characteristics or one will take all the load, and guess what? Bang!

So if you can't get or manufacture an exact replacement you'd have to replace the entire drive module.

Last year I thought /. was headed for the cliff to oblivion.
It seems someone not only found the brakes, but also the steering wheel.

Dunno about that. I've got CDs and DVDs I've had for years - and the machines to play them - all if perfect working order. the only reason I haven't bothered with recent DVDs is they are crap content.

Phillips have a very long history if making things as difficult as possible for everyone else. Going right back to their early TVs and radios.

The parent organisation should maintain a networked data store that all it's reporters have a write only password for.
Data is then sent via ssl. No other encryption software of any kind on the laptop.
Absolute minimum of services and a tiny hard drive, with no swap file/partition.
Reporters should only use a plain, single view, text editor that doesn't store parts of a working document to file, and can be made to direct send the data without ever touching the hard drive.

A classic of it's time.