So, what you're saying is that the 7 year old desktop in my living room which is currently running Ubuntu 10.10 (most recent version), the 8 year old laptop which is running SimplyMepis, also in my living room, the 6 year old laptop which I installed LinuxMint on for a neighbor and the 7 year old desktop also running Linux Mint I provided for one of my other neighbors all had to have new hardware just to work? I don't remember doing that for any of them.

All hardware was supported out of the box. In fact, the Epson printer I set up on my home network was also supported on all of them.