Comment "Linux" forces you to upgrade your hardware (Score 1) 330
My laptop is a 9 years old Mitac Celeron M, 1.2Ghz with i810 graphics. It works perfectly and I don't need nor plan to buy a new one. Over the years, I saw Linux support becoming better and better for this all-Intel laptop. However, since 2008, things become more and more difficult. Features like KMS are hard to get working. Newer X drivers don't work anymore, requiring manual tuning to Xorg.conf to use "i810" instead of "intel". It means that installing a new Linux distro almost always requires text mode/kernel options. Although my laptop is nearly entierely made of Intel components, hardware support never reached 100% and will obviously never be. Sensors drivers, for example, were never written. I even tried to write them myself.
Ten years ago, as many others around the world, I advocated "Linux" saying it was lighter than Windows and did work on older hardware. I attended many LUG meetings, install parties and other kinds of events. I was installing Linux on 486s with Pentium Overdrives we donated to people who could not afford a computer. I was saying to everybody that Windows was evil. It was evil because "Microsoft had secret agreements with hardware vendors" so they would bloat windows and stop old hardware support to force people to buy a new computer.
Today, it's the same for Linux. Hardware vendors "contribute" to Linux (the kernel, X drivers and so on). In fact, they control Linux totally and don't have any plan to make it compatible with older hardware.
Now, I'll be forced to either stick with old software (and old bugs and old security issues) or go buy a new laptop.
Ten years ago, as many others around the world, I advocated "Linux" saying it was lighter than Windows and did work on older hardware. I attended many LUG meetings, install parties and other kinds of events. I was installing Linux on 486s with Pentium Overdrives we donated to people who could not afford a computer. I was saying to everybody that Windows was evil. It was evil because "Microsoft had secret agreements with hardware vendors" so they would bloat windows and stop old hardware support to force people to buy a new computer.
Today, it's the same for Linux. Hardware vendors "contribute" to Linux (the kernel, X drivers and so on). In fact, they control Linux totally and don't have any plan to make it compatible with older hardware.
Now, I'll be forced to either stick with old software (and old bugs and old security issues) or go buy a new laptop.
