It's definitely gotten more wasteful lately in particularly. You could run 8.1 on any computer that supported Vista, and IME it was even a little snappier, but 10 and 11 have each been significantly worse.

i3wm on a 32bit IBM thinkpad is still instantaneous-response-fast

[–] relativestranger@feddit.nl 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

i only recently moved my main home pc from 8.1. there's configs and software on it that would be difficult or impossible to recreate on a new install or pc. i even have a spare identical mb and cpu in case it's needed. 1st gen. mechanical disks (several, sata ssd wasn't that much of an improvement with the old controller for everyday use so i opted to keep the higher capacity) 32gb ram and pascal gpu. i skipped all the way to a rufus'd 11 and it's actually running well (with all the crud ripped out, though). it dual boots with endless on a loop device. the upgrade didn't even mess that up.