Message-ID: <69ea9ec7@news.ausics.net>
From: not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev)
Subject: Re: AI Is Killing Some Legacy Hardware Support
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc
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Date: 24 Apr 2026 08:35:51 +1000
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Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
> As a result, the Linux development community has decided that, to
> maintain its sanity, they have to start dropping those old drivers
> completely from the mainline kernel.
> 
> <https://www.tomshardware.com/software/linux/linux-may-be-ending-support-for-older-network-drivers-due-to-influx-of-false-ai-generated-bug-reports-maintenance-has-become-too-burdensome-for-old-largely-unused-systems>

Yikes, and I see as well as network drivers they're starting the
process of dropping PCMCIA support:

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-7.1-Drops-Old-PCMCIA-Code

I always considered installing Linux on brand new systems a bit
dodgy with drivers often still having bugs ironed out, but since I
personally use ancient tech I can assume everything will just work.
Indeed the older the better since with hardware made before the mid
2000s you don't have headaches with needing huge firmware packages
and the clunky way drivers can fail without them.

I've mainly avoided the BSDs for fear of driver issues, even while
the adoption of Systemd and Wayland by most Linux distros has been
making them more attractive. It looks like the balance might be
tipping in their favour now for me.

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