Alternatively, as the guy who looks like he could be one of Donnie Osmond's kids demonstrates, you can install Windows XP or Windows 98, and use today's hardware with it. (Sorta.)
An interesting thing about Windows I just remembered, after using it off and on from 3.1 or possibly earlier all the way through 11 now. I don't believe I ever paid for any of them. Before copyright protection issues you could just copy floppies or CDs and go with that, same with the older Office stuff. And after that I just pirated the shit. Which leads me to XP and getting that off of some dodgy file sharing service that I don't exactly remember and the end result being a copy of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon instead.
Those were the days. I remember pirating a copy of Windows XP off of Kazaa and using a pirated key and it worked great for about a year, and then suddenly it pops up this "your copy of Windows XP is not a licensed copy!" and I panicked so bad I wiped EVERYTHING off the computer and threw the burned CD in the trash, or as I like to call it "the first time I installed Ubuntu Linux." The last copy of Windows I ever paid for was Windows 7, and that's because I got a free upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7 Basic and it was just shit. Just shit. So I bought a licensed copy online and used that, upgrading again and again until Windows 10 and then just ditching it all for Linux permanently.
Crap, you might be right. I think it was probably Kazaa or eDonkey or possibly Limewire, but I don't think Limewire or Frostwire existed back then. It's been a long road. And good call on the Linux transition as well.
With MS extending 10's support for another year, my transition to Linux is buffered. Ideally, I'd get myself an external drive to backup docs and key apps, but with prices being what they are thanks to AI
