I used i3 for a couple of years, but I missed the ease of having a DE that just recognised USB sticks and external hard drives, and all the other little things that you have to set up manually

Yeah I don’t see the problem here

My laptop is 6 years old and has been running arch Linux with xfce for most of that time. I got tired of maintaining it and changed to an “easy” Linux mint distro. It takes much longer to boot up now and feels generally sluggish in comparison to a minimal arch install. So from experience, in older hardware having a bloated distro can really slow down your system.

I don’t think they’re beyond redemption. My hope is that Linus can take a step back and let the CEO work on improving the workplace culture. No idea if he’s up to the challenge but time will tell