On Wed, Apr 6, 2022 at 4:06 AM laolux laolux via devel <devel@lists.fedoraproject.org> wrote:
I have no strong opinion on this, and not much say anyways, but I thought I could share my little piece of info.
My currently one and only computer is a 2012 MSI GE60 0ND, with a core i7-3630QM, 16GB RAM and retrofitted with a SSD.
So I would say fast enough for using Fedora. At least according to notebookcheck.com the CPU is supposed to be faster than a rather recent Core i3-1110G4, which is still being used in new notebooks in 2022.
Unfortunately it only supports legacy BIOS, and not UEFI.
Thus I do not like the wording of the change proposal.

> Fedora already requires a 2GHz dual core CPU at minimum (and therefore
> mandates that machines must have been made after 2006).  Like the
> already accepted Fedora 37 change to retire ARMv7 support, the
> hardware targeted tends to be rather underpowered by today’s
> standards, and the world has moved on from it.  Intel stopped shipping
> the last vestiges of BIOS support in 2020 (as have other vendors, and
> Apple and Microsoft), so this is clearly the way things are heading -
> and therefore aligns with Fedora’s “First” objective.

This seems to imply that only rather old and weak hardware would be affected, when clearly the cutoff is (at maximum) only 10 years back.
Please don't get me wrong, I am perfectly fine about Fedora dropping "old" hardware, and I am willing to throw away my still working notebook, producing a little bit electronic waste when the time comes. But I think one should be more open and explicit about it.


At the risk of being 'that guy' it's worth pointing out that not everyone lives in a 1st world country and has access to cheap powerful hardware.  I have good friends in Namibia and Cote d'Ivoire who are still using Fedora on Core2Duo systems from pre 2010, because the machines are still perfectly functional and do what they need them to do.
I realize some will have the attitude of "they can just not upgrade and keep using their old Fedora versions".  Ok, that's a possible solution, except that Fedora versions get EOL'd pretty quickly, so we'd basically be taking the stance of 'buy new hardware if you want updates'.

Fedora has made a big deal about being considered a "Digital Public Good"; and we are right to be proud of that.  But if we're going to be proud of that, let's not also decide to screw over areas that are not as economically strong as where most of us are lucky enough to live.  It's kind of arrogant of us to expect that everyone who uses Fedora is financially able to go out and replace their hardware all the time even when there's nothing wrong with it.
Are we only making Fedora for those with lots of spare money or is Fedora for everyone? 
/end being that guy