If anything, this can be read as, while an inconvenience, an open source success story.
All pieces of the puzzle were open enough that the author could track down the problem and correct it. That, not indefinite support for no-longer-manufactured hardware, is the benefit of open source. It's the thing that enables the other thing.
And thanks to the magic of the internet, blogs, and search engines, now that one person has solved the problem there's a cracking chance that the next person to have the problem will find the solution.
All pieces of the puzzle were open enough that the author could track down the problem and correct it. That, not indefinite support for no-longer-manufactured hardware, is the benefit of open source. It's the thing that enables the other thing.
And thanks to the magic of the internet, blogs, and search engines, now that one person has solved the problem there's a cracking chance that the next person to have the problem will find the solution.