> you're also out of luck using old hardware in the first place because the manufacturer wants you to buy the new version. they will help you LESS than Linux devs.
The manufacturer probably doesn't exist any more. They wrote decent drivers and supported them for a number of years, that should be enough. Or maybe a dedicated fan wrote some OSS drivers at some point in the past. On both Windows and FreeBSD that's good enough; once a driver has been written, it largely stays working, so I can keep using my hardware. This really is a unique downside of Linux.
The manufacturer probably doesn't exist any more. They wrote decent drivers and supported them for a number of years, that should be enough. Or maybe a dedicated fan wrote some OSS drivers at some point in the past. On both Windows and FreeBSD that's good enough; once a driver has been written, it largely stays working, so I can keep using my hardware. This really is a unique downside of Linux.