The fact that it has worked for a decade+ over hardware revisions and OS updates is the key thing here. Windows worked for a while, then didn't, then it worked

The fact that it has worked for a decade+ over hardware revisions and OS updates is the key thing here. Windows worked for a while, then didn't, then it worked again. I actually destroyed a Windows laptop with a faulty lid suspend. Closed the lid, put it in a laptop bag and drove 3 hours. Got there and it was 100% dead, cooked itself alive pretty much by overheating in the bag. Linux sometimes works, sometimes it doesn't. Depends on hardware and software versions. It might work at first, then you update the OS and it breaks again.