[neilv]

While Linux support for old hardware tends to be great, lately various kinds of Linux support are suffering in some ways, as higher percentages of software techies are now using Macs and MS Windows.

Add to this many people now going to pains to do open source for closed (and sometimes abusive) platforms, which has network effects, bringing and cementing more techies to closed, and leaving them oblivious to why and how we have the open things we still do.

This also has network effects in removing some hard-earned pressure on hardware developers to cooperate with open platform efforts.

There's an expression about wealth, which I'll rephrase something like: "The first generation earns it, the second generation preserves it, the third generation fritters it away."

There's also an expression: "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

We could avoid a lot of needless abuse in the next several years (and questionable tree-watering), by more of us actively trying to preserve and even improve libre/open platforms now.

[mb7733]

>While Linux support for old hardware tends to be great, lately various kinds of Linux support are suffering in some ways, as higher percentages of software techies are now using Macs and MS Windows.

Any examples or evidence of this? Seems easier than me than ever to use Linux with all kinds of hardware

[Jiro]

Here you go.

https://bugs.ghostscript.com/show_bug.cgi?id=706455

There is a workaround by manually editing a script to call gs in a different way, but the original way doesn't work and they won't fix it, and the script itself is from a package maintained by nobody.