I can't find it, but I remember reading an article about FreeBSD running uninterrupted for 10-15 years on an airport system, but which eventually failed because

I can't find it, but I remember reading an article about FreeBSD running uninterrupted for 10-15 years on an airport system, but which eventually failed because of a hardware malfunction. Punchline was ~"would have happily strolled along longer, if the hardware was as good as the software". You could also try something down the Gentoo route with known-good and solid LTS kernels.