Thought of this the other day. I bet a lot of us are like this, because in today’s world a lot of things we used to tinker with are gone (electronics are made to be single use and unfixable, cars are proprietary and can rarely be modified or worked on without many many thousands of dollars now, etc).
Sure, there are still hardcore electronics projects going on and people doing massive restoration projects and such, but i consider them basically geniuses, not just tinkerers who enjoy messing around and learning in their spare time while working 50 hours a week.
Im glad linux gives us a space to exist!
I’ve recently gone through a pile of ‘dead’ ThinkPads T410 at work, cleaning them up, harvesting usable parts and installing Kubuntu on them so people on the shop floor who just need access to online forms can use them.
I’ve been genuinely surprised at the utility they can still offer, despite being fairly low spec dual core i5 machines from 2010. Sure, no one’s gaming on them, but that’s not the point. They’re still useful.