> But the latest and greatest Windows and Linux releases are installable on older devices.

This was certainly true until recently when Microsoft went all Windows 11, which only works on a small, whitelisted subset of X86-compatible CPUs and also mandated TPM 2.0.

Now only Linux offers semi-guaranteed support for older hardware.

To note: Windows 10 is still supported and will be up to 2025. And when that date arrives, Microsoft has a history of patching out of support Operating Systems. Mostly because they have large enterprise contracts which last longer than the EOL of their OS.

Also Microsoft provides an official guide on how to install Windows 11 on older hardware. My neighbor has Windows 11 on his 10 year old laptop running an i7 2500 and it's butter smooth.

> But the latest and greatest Windows and Linux releases are installable on older devices.

So is OS X Big Sur[1] and Monterey[2]

For the majority of people all they need to do is pull their finger out and upgrade the OS from Catalina to Big Sur or Monterey.

    [1]https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211238
    [2]https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212551

Those show about 8 years. My 2011 iMac was dropped by Mojave (7 years).

Modern computers should last a lot longer than that, especially if you can pass them on to users with less demanding requirements.

And fortunately Macs do last longer than that, but you have to install Linux or Windows to keep them up to date.