[hiq]

> Your average PC build will be completely outdated after ~5 years, suffer some type of hardware failure, or have nearly all of it's software (BIOS, OS, drivers) dead and unsupported by then. It is then only usable by enthusiasts / developers, and ends up in a landfill otherwise.

This might have been true 20 years ago, it really no longer is. My main personal computer has a CPU that was released in 2014. I got it for free from a company that was getting rid of it, I guess they could justify getting better machines. I replaced the HDD with an SSD, but that's it. I don't know when the computer itself booted the first time since I'm not the first owner, but chances are that it's about 10 years old at this point.

I mostly use Debian, but Windows supports this computer just fine as well.

The main reason electronics become unusable these days is software bloat (e.g. going from Windows 10 to Windows 11), not the hardware, and a Windows PC still feels like it can last way longer than an iPad can.

[fluidcruft]

Not that I disagree about hardware lifetime (also have an old machine running strong on Debian) but just FYI Windows 10 ends this year and Windows 11 doesn't support CPUs older than 2017.