[lubuntu-users] Current State of Spectre and Meltdown

[Ralf Mardorf]

Hi,

consumerism has got an upside and a downside.

Your subject is misleading, since you question the support of aged CPUs.

Your point of view takes only your field of application into account
and  apart from this you ignore the progress computers already made
before the microchips mentioned by you were available. I for example
still own a 80286. From which date on should support end? Probably the
80286 was never supported by the Linux kernel. Is Linux the measure of
all things?

The Commodore 64 I used around 30 years ago was in the same price range
as my new iPad Pro 3rd generation today. The C64 was used as a MIDI
sequencer with a click thingy to sync to a tape recorder (years later
it was replaced by an Atari ST with SMPTE to sync to a tape recorder).
In addition I needed a studio full of expensive synth and effect gear
that was way more expensive than those computers. For the iPad I only
need a cheap pro-sumer audio interface and to purchase a few
proprietary apps in a price range of what was needed just to get one
synthesizer around 30 years ago. You indeed could get a second hand PC
and free as in beer Linux audio applications, but you cannot replace
the aged synthesizers and the old effect gear completely with a Linux
machine, because the virtual free as in beer synthesizers and effects
do not nearly sound as good as the old studio gear does. If you pay
software for the relatively expensive iPad, you can replace almost all
of the old gear.

A lot of hardware and software development happened and still happens
because it's coupled with consumerism. While software development for
free as in beer is possible to some degree, CPU development and
fabrication has got a price.

I'm neither unconditionally pro consumerism, nor naive against it.

Who should pay the people for supporting a microchip bought 10 years
ago in the price range of what we pay to get the food we need in just
one week? Should they also continue to develop newer CPUs? Who should
pay for the development, if we continue using old machines?

I dislike, if people buy a new computer each year. I tend to use my PCs
for around 10 years, if possible, often the PCs already fail before
they are 10 years old. Some of us are able to repair broken computer
gear, but often it doesn't pay to repair old computers. For the
majority of people who need to pay a repair shop, it's cheaper to get a
new PC from the discounter, by the way, with the latest release of
Windows pre-installed.

Regards,
Ralf