[pengaru]

Just because it's likely an old and long dormant piece of electronics, nothing to do with linux beyond it having to run the machine for multiple days 24x7. My understanding is they don't come out of deep dusty storage in ready for service condition. Leaky caps.

[einr]

C64 caps are generally fine and do not need replacing. The most common things to spontaneously go bad of ”old age” on a 64 are probably RAM chips and the PLA, and of course the power supply is a time bomb.