May I ask why do people use older Thinkpads (90's and so on)? Is it that Linux distros are less intensive and can be run on older models?

Am I a braindead consumer who needs to have the latest piece of crap to feel fulfilled? I'm just a normie who wants a laptop to browse 30 tabs at the same time and do some coding. All on Windows. Just trying to understand the culture around all this as it's new to me.