The thing I find interesting about retro computing is how far one can take the platform in terms of productivity. In other words, how far can the platform be taken if one ignores content consumption.
There's also a minimalists/efficiency mindset at play. If I confine youtube to the living room, can I satisfy my daily desktop needs with an older system? Is that older system actually faster (because of less software bloat) even though it's running on much more constrained hardware? Do I actually need an operating system that supports multiple logged in users for my desktop use cases? Are modern UIs more distracting and actually an impediment on productivity?
I can't speak for others but these questions are interesting to me.
I have an DEC VT320 terminal hooked to one of my Linux machines, and when I need to heads down, no distractions, pound out text, I pull it into a room without a computer (or TV) and close the door. It's a great way to block out distractions. George RR Martin famously writes his books in Wordstar on a DOS PC not connected to the Internet for similar reasons.
The big limiting factor with using a vintage computer for a daily driver is that very few of them have a browser that supports modern web standards, have relatively low resolution screens and are painfully slow doing modern crypto (TLS & SSH), so much of the modern internet is inaccessible or unusable.
There's also a minimalists/efficiency mindset at play. If I confine youtube to the living room, can I satisfy my daily desktop needs with an older system? Is that older system actually faster (because of less software bloat) even though it's running on much more constrained hardware? Do I actually need an operating system that supports multiple logged in users for my desktop use cases? Are modern UIs more distracting and actually an impediment on productivity?
I can't speak for others but these questions are interesting to me.