Forced obsolescence in Linux

[Kevin Brown]

> Yup, it's getting so you're out of luck if you want to run
> Linux on old computers, a recent Slashdot posting to
> the contrary . . . unless I want to get into the ALSA cvs
> repository and spend a few hours in hopeful hacking ...
> but that's what I do for a living, and we should be past
> that for a driver (snd-sb16 for Sound Blaster 16 ISA)
> that used to work and is now orphaned even in distros
> that used to have it.
> 
> Just felt like venting.  I'll do the cvs thing when I have a
> few hours of cultural time (ha!).  And my friend calls me
> every few days asking if his computer is ready yet . . .
> No, he can't cut into his ramen-noodles budget to buy a
> new sound card.

Unlike Microsoft linux doesn't really force obsolescence of hardware, 
but at some point the devs do have to stop trying to keep lesser used 
drivers up to date with a newer way of doing things.  You can still 
download older versions of most software and since you do have access to 
the source can update drivers that are needed specifically for your 
systems to work with newer versions.  Software is only kept up to date 
when a dev (which is anyone willing to take the time) feels the need to 
do so.  Worst case, offer a reward to someone if they'll update the 
driver/library/whatever...