Every single computer that was ever made is still out there, and a use could be found for them, somewhere in the world. We just don't have the resources to distribute 'old' computers for which find no use, to those who would find a use - so we throw them away, usually with the excuse 'archaic/outdated, consumes too much power, etc' - excuses that were as equally valid the day the machine came out of the box, but are only really issued when a human decision has been made.
You can still pick up a stone axe and use it to feed your family, even if its original user died tens of thousands of years ago. The same is true of every single tool ever made - its only the arbitrary decision making of humans which make an inanimate object useful or otherwise.
disclaimer: grumpy old retro computing enthusiast who really wants people to stop throwing functioning electronic gear in the landfill...
Hmmm. I have an ancient dual Intel 3GHz Xeon Nocona (~2004 I think) with 5MB of RAM :) hanging around.
It's mostly used as a stand for other things (powered off, but has good case) left on top of it.
Although it runs, each of the two CPU's uses about 100w. And the whole thing running flat out is about as slow as an older model laptop.
There's no real use for this things computing power any more, except on the very rare occasion I need to spin up some OS and don't have other available computing gear handy.
So, the whole "all tools are useful" thing is only marginally true for very old computing stuff.
There's also the issue of websites and applications (hello Electron) wasting insane amounts of resources for things that were done just fine a decade ago with 1/10 of the processing power and memory.
My 12-inch MacBook (bought in 2017, but it's a low-power dual-core CPU) struggles on a lot of websites including YouTube - not for the video decoding but for the page rendering. I remember watching YouTube just fine a decade ago on a machine much less powerful.
Every single computer that was ever made is still out there, and a use could be found for them, somewhere in the world. We just don't have the resources to distribute 'old' computers for which find no use, to those who would find a use - so we throw them away, usually with the excuse 'archaic/outdated, consumes too much power, etc' - excuses that were as equally valid the day the machine came out of the box, but are only really issued when a human decision has been made.
You can still pick up a stone axe and use it to feed your family, even if its original user died tens of thousands of years ago. The same is true of every single tool ever made - its only the arbitrary decision making of humans which make an inanimate object useful or otherwise.
disclaimer: grumpy old retro computing enthusiast who really wants people to stop throwing functioning electronic gear in the landfill...