It's been 11 years since the widespread introduction of 64-bit processors in consumer hardware. I think it's a pretty safe assumption to make that a vast majori

It's been 11 years since the widespread introduction of 64-bit processors in consumer hardware. I think it's a pretty safe assumption to make that a vast majority of people are using 64-bit-capable machines. There are advantages to the "hardware upgrade" treadmill if you're on a laptop (not many laptops got 9 hours of battery life in 2003), and if you open an IDE from time to time, or do heavy consumer-facing web development, having a computer from the last decade is useful. Also easier to run a high-res multi-monitor setup if you have some good speed behind that. It's possible to be good and capable on the machines you're citing, but the overwhelming majority of software developers (even the ones using vim/emacs) are not of the linux + xmonad type.