Yay, ewaste!
It’s literally not worth the electricity to keep computers that old running. You could replace one with a $5 Raspberry Pi Zero or maybe even a $2 microcontroller and recoup the cost in lower power bills within a month or so.
Some stuff turns to e-waste because it’s no longer supported by software. Some stuff turns to e-waste because it’s just so goddamn old. The last ones of these architecture had a whopping 233MHz. My first PC that I got new as a kid was faster than that (must have been a Pentium II, while i586 is Pentium). I highly doubt there are many of these systems left in operation, especially not with new kernels.
A lot and i mean a lot of industrial controllers are running on 486s. Intel was producing 486s up until 2007. And a lot of companies wont get rid of controllers if they continue to work.
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You do if want to support modern hardware. Just because the brains are old doesnt mean the peripherals are.
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Don’t be an idiot.