This is definitely the case. And by the time someone is willing to experiment with their PC its so old that the experience with Linux is hampered by the older hardware.
God i wish. And most everyone here could install a new operating system in about 20 minutes. But nobody else is going to because the learning curve for a regular user to install an os is basically perpendicular. Even if they had a linux installer already on a flash drive.
Oh just boot into the bios and find the option to boot for a flash drive and then boom installed.
Which requires a user to know,
What a bios is
What booting means
What boot options mean
What the model of their flash drive is
What button on their keyboard they need to press to get to the bios
What secure boot is
Where they need to go to turn off secure boot
How and where to back up their important files
What a disk partition is
How to reverse the changes made to the bios so that it doesn't boot to usb by default.
And that's assuming they know why they want a different OS, why they care and that they know about Linux in the first place.
Most people dont and never will. All you can do is install Linux for the ones you like the most and say a prayer to your favorite deity for the rest.
I actually run mine in a 12 year old castoff Thinkpad. 4 GB ram total. More than enough to run it because I run a DNS server, a dashboard and a speedtest server on the same machine.
This seems like it might be a perfect use case for Tailscale. The open source version of the control plane is called Headscale but you'd have to host it in a vps somewhere if you wanted to use it.
I was genuinely convinced they offered 10gig service in some markets. Doesn't surprise me that its all marketing nonsense.
Just a tip for anyone who wants to know, if you have Comcast business internet they'll tell you you have to use their modem but, you can swap it out with a 3rd patty modem and use the live chat service to get it activated. Then you can send back their modem for free at a ups store. Every salesperson will tell you its not possible but it absolutely is.
I didn't realize it was that recent of an addition to the NEC. Weve only lived in super old houses where everything was always needing completely redone. I was usually replacing 2 conductor and cloth-jacketed stuff everywhere.
That was around 2012 and I remember the electrician we hired at the time mentioned it being a thing so that makes sense.
Current national electrical code in the US (since the 1980s) is a neutral in every switch box. Before then a switch loop was allowed so you see a lot of older construction with those.
You also see newer construction with those where Uncle Dave™ decided it was easier to only have to run a wire down from the light rather than fish it up through the crawlspace, NEC be damned.
Linux pre installed is the only way for most people to use it I'm afraid.