15-09-2025, 04:17 PM
Also worth noting that staying on Windows doesn't mean you can keep using the same hardware and software forever.
Plenty of hardware designed for Windows 9x stopped working with Windows XP because nobody updated the drivers.
Plenty of hardware that worked in XP/Vista and even Win 7 doesn't work with Windows 10, and then you have all the CPU incompatibilities etc with Windows 11.
Companies like Canon don't want to update their software and drivers for every new version of Windows.
At some point they stop, to force you to buy a newer device.
Linux on the other hand, is often actually better at supporting legacy devices, because there's no reason to drop support, as there's no financial incentive to do so.
I have a nice little Epson laser printer from 1995. Driver support for Windows only lasted up until Windows 2000, officially, but the driver will work on XP 32-bit too. Beyond that, you're SOL, except now I run it on Linux, and it's still usable!
Plenty of hardware designed for Windows 9x stopped working with Windows XP because nobody updated the drivers.
Plenty of hardware that worked in XP/Vista and even Win 7 doesn't work with Windows 10, and then you have all the CPU incompatibilities etc with Windows 11.
Companies like Canon don't want to update their software and drivers for every new version of Windows.
At some point they stop, to force you to buy a newer device.
Linux on the other hand, is often actually better at supporting legacy devices, because there's no reason to drop support, as there's no financial incentive to do so.
I have a nice little Epson laser printer from 1995. Driver support for Windows only lasted up until Windows 2000, officially, but the driver will work on XP 32-bit too. Beyond that, you're SOL, except now I run it on Linux, and it's still usable!