I’d say more than 10 years now. Computers evolved a lot more between the 90s and the 00s than between the 00s and now, my old laptop is 10 years old and it’s still perfectly running linux, and I hope it will keep running for years.
The problem is more hardware obsolescence, it’s a Acer so every part of it is slowly falling apart (keyboard, screen, battery) and OEM parts are impossible to find after all those years. I guess this problem is less important for desktop.
@Courantdair @Lettuceeatlettuce
Yeah one reason I've never cared for laptops.
I snipe used USFF ultra small form factor machines off eBay...nice being able to eventually scale into new upgrades, swap out original i3's, for i5 or i7 when I see good deals.
Although my main PC, the mechanical keyboard started to have issues...parts just arrived today so I can repair it \0/ glad I'm not roped into some laptop to try to maintain again.