I've recently seen a trend in tech communities on lemmy where people have developed this mentality that computer hardware is as disposable as a compostable cup, and that after 10-15 years you should just chuck it in the bin and get something new. If someone asks for tech support, they'll just be told to buy new hardware. If someone is saddened their hardware is no longer supported by software they are just entitled, need to pull up their bootstraps, and "only" spend $100 to get something used that will also not be supported in 5 years. It doesn't matter if there is actual information out there that'll help them either. If the hardware is old, people will unanimously decide that nothing can be done.
I've seen this even in linux communities, what happened to people giving a damn about e-waste? Why is the solution always to just throw money at the problem? It's infuriating. I've half a mind to just block every tech/software community other than the ones on hexbear at this point.
It really is the intersection of capitalism that makes this so difficult. Really many computer users in the global south have much older hardware than is available in the imperial core, but a majority of development happens in the imperial core in terms of software maintenance and so there's a purposeful disconnect between manufacturers and users.
Libre operating systems have been a lot better at this, but we see the shortage of labor and expertise a lot and when hardware companies make bone headed moves like nvidia restricting their newer drivers to newer cards there's really nothing we can do on our side besides keep packaging legacy drivers.
It doesnt help that newer computer products have become more hostile to user repairs and have built in lifespans with soldered SSDs.
32 Bit computers are going to have to go away at some point though due to the 2038 problem (unless the intention is to not ever connect to the Internet on those devices anymore). So at the very least its a legimitimate hardware limitation.
Packaging legacy drivers isn't really a solution. I have a literal stack of older NVidia Cards (some are even Quadros) that are just Paperweights because:
I'm really annoyed by how FreeDesktop/Nouveau developers only keep chasing the "latest and greatest" when there is a lot of existing Hardware out there that has only had half-assed support for at least a decade, but for some reason no one cares. Seriously, everytime I read about updates related to Nouveau or Mesa it's never about older Hardware anymore.
time_t on 32-bit Linux has been 64 bits for over a decade, I think. The real fear is Linux dropping 32 bit support, which would turn 32 bit PCs into pure retrocomputing devices. The last new 32 bit Intel processors were Pentium 4s from 2008 and I think some Atoms up to 2010.