Strange, the last incompatibility-problems I saw were those caused by disappearing interfaces - things like parallel printer and SCSI ports - but those are all

Strange, the last incompatibility-problems I saw were those caused by disappearing interfaces - things like parallel printer and SCSI ports - but those are all long gone. If I'm not using my HP SJ5200 scanner (with parallel and USB interface) - it is because the thing is slower than the somewhat newer version I came across at a flea market, not because it is incompatible. That thing is probably around 20 years old if not more but it works fine. The same goes for more or less all other 'old' external hardware - internal is often hampered by the absence of internal PCI (or VESA local bus or ISA or what have you) slots - so I can't really identify with this idiom of 'everything needing to be upgraded after a desktop refresh'. It might help that I use Linux and as such am spared from forced upgrade trajectories.