Every year, 62 million tons of e-waste are dumped, much from hardware Microsoft stopped supporting. Windows 11 requires TPM 2.0 and modern CPUs, so perfectly good 2014-2019 machines are now 'obsolete'.
Linux uses far less RAM with Ubuntu+Xfce needing 650MB vs Windows 11 at 3-4GB. Three lightweight Linux releases in 2026 show that Linux ecosystem will work just fine on your old hardware.
https://www.fosslinux.com/158206/linux-on-older-hardware-revival-guide.htm
@yogthos @Galsungen My take based on 20+ years usage of linux and of helping various computer-illiterate switch to linux: too many issues with ubuntu, lacking some polish. Issues that I easily overcome, but they can't by themselves, and they shouldn't happen.
Also, XFCE is nice for very old computers, but KDE has a usability for newbies over footprint ratio much higher in my view, and its footprint is often overestimated.
Most computers that don't support Windows 11 run KDE/Plasma smoothly.
Yogthos
Stormi 🐿️