> Has not being able to install Windows XP on a modern machine left you bitter...?
Not at all.
I have been burned by drivers that only worked in 32 bit Windows XP though. They simply couldn't be used in newer versions of Windows. The manufacturer couldn't care less, they think I should just trash the unsupported hardware and buy the newest product instead.
Linux doesn't have this problem. Once a driver makes it into the kernel, it can be maintained, updated, fixed, refactored, improved, backported to older kernels, recompiled for new architectures. It's just so much better.
Not at all.
I have been burned by drivers that only worked in 32 bit Windows XP though. They simply couldn't be used in newer versions of Windows. The manufacturer couldn't care less, they think I should just trash the unsupported hardware and buy the newest product instead.
Linux doesn't have this problem. Once a driver makes it into the kernel, it can be maintained, updated, fixed, refactored, improved, backported to older kernels, recompiled for new architectures. It's just so much better.