Ask HN: I have an old 32-bit laptop. Should I keep it up and running?
Is it worth the time and effort to keep it up and running or dump the ancient system and get myself a new one?
Alternatively, you could go all in on security and buy a T400 for $100, spend another $100 to $200 upgrading its CPU, Screen, RAM, SSD and battery, then Libreboot it: https://libreboot.org/docs/hardware/t400.html
My primary system is a beefy desktop running Debian Bullseye. I'm wary of installing unproved software on it. So I first install unfamiliar software on a spare laptop, sometimes with a clean OS install. If the software works as desired then I install it onto my primary system.
Unless this is a special piece of hardware--and not just yet another generic laptop--do yourself a favor and get it recycled.
If you keep it and don't use it, you'll never feel those pangs.
As with the migration from 8 to 16 to 32 bits, most software won't support 32 bits in 5-10 years.
From experience I can tell you that if you need to browse the modern web, older machines will struggle a lot unless you do things like turn off JavaScript or use speciality browsers designed for low power machines.
If you just want a machine to run vim and write code, go for it.
So it really depends on what you need it to do.
But if you want to run old software that meets your needs then it's ok. I've heard of an author that used Wordperfect to write. He loved the fact that he could not get distracted by other software and he loved using the word processor to write. Old hardware worked for him.
But that's for you to decide.
Maintaining a Linux installation on old laptops gets old, and in the end, I stopped doing that and wiped the hard drives.