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Like many others using Ubuntu and various other distributions, has the Linux kernel officially phased out certain systems?

I'm using a HP 6700 AMD Turion 64 laptop that worked perfectly with Lucid 10.04. However starting with 10.10 and up it seems that certain core issues gradually appear:

  • Ricoh built-in card reader shows corrupted files in Nautilus. I use a DSLR for photography and video so I consider this major problem. Win 7 shows them perfectly.

  • In 11.10 (and apparently 12.04) Bluetooth just does not work with receiving files. GUI device list is corrupted in options panel also. A "downgrade" to kernel 2.6.39 fixed that issue.

  • No HDMI audio for Nvidia 8400GS (not a major issue to me but still, it works on WIN 7).

I've search for various forum and bug listings with either no responses from Canonical or coders and zero solutions (I figured the kernel drop myself).

It seems kinda irresponsible to just drop system support that worked perfect recently just out of assumptions of someone getting a new system every few months.

Backwards compatibility is what Linux developers and supporters constantly touts as it being excellent in. Unfortunately this isn't the case.

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  • I suppose the reasoning for maintaining kernel drivers/modules is as varied as hardware to be maintained. IMO the kernel developers make every attempt to maintain the drivers. Have you tried filing a bug report ?
    – Panther
    Jan 24, 2012 at 22:28

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I don't think I've ever heard anyone claim that backwards compatibility is Linux' strength. It's always been a huge weakness. But regressions happen. You file bugs when something doesn't work. You do that on Launchpad. Yes, Linux drops old hardware from time to time. You can't assume that a computer from 1995 will still be supported, for instance. A computer from 2000 should work well though.

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