Support for "old" hardware (was:Re: kern/148741: [sound] Headphones are deaf (do not work) on Lenovo ThinkPad X300)

[VDR User]

On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 5:29 PM, Yuri <yuri at rawbw.com> wrote:
>> You're being very dramatic and over-exaggerating. Also, Unix along
>> with all of its spawn has gone through significant change over the
>> years so if you're implying what people use today is the same thing
>> they were using in the 70's then that's being blatantly dishonest.
>>
>> Maybe in a perfect world all hardware would be supported forever. But
>> there comes a time when, for example, maintaining a driver becomes
>> counter-productive because there simply isn't enough of a user-base to
>> justify the resources spent doing so. Hardware evolves, software
>> evolves, computers evolve -- if you don't want to evolve with it then
>> continue to use the hardware & software from whatever era in computing
>> history of your choosing so long as you understand the burden of
>> supporting that stuff may ultimately rest on your shoulders.
>
> AC'97 is for ex. in Lenovo ThinkPad T60 that was still sold in 2007. It is
> entirely possible that the same chipset was used in later models and maybe
> is still in manufacturing.
> Quick search on http://www.bsdstats.org/bt/devices/class/04/subclass/01.html
> reveals that quite a few systems still use AC'97, particularly "82801AA 8xx
> Chipset AC'97 Audio Controller" is listed as used 631 times and in fact is
> the most frequently used particular type of the audio device listed on BSD
> stats website.

My comments were meant to be taken in a general sense, hence why
nothing specific was mentioned. There are plenty of examples of old
hardware still in use, but that isn't really what I was addressing.

> I only wish more people shared their hardware with BSD stats.
> Also this T60 may be obsolete by the latest and greatest standards, but is
> still a very capable system, can easily run BSD or Linux and would be
> totally sufficient for someone who only needs to browse the web and check
> e-mail (read 95% of people).

Yes, indeed. We passed the tipping point along time ago where
computers became `over-powered` in regards to most users needs. I
fully believe in and support pc recycling. However, you do get to a
point where it becomes unreasonable to continue to support old
hardware within new software because it's simply not a good use of
resources to do so. Should a person spend their valued time wrestling
to keep old hardware working? I don't know a whole lot of devs who say
yes to that question.

There's a reason support for old stuff decays or flat out gets thrown
in the trash. If you choose to drive a 20 year old car, you've got to
accept the fact that there will likely be some issues using it.