The Jevons Paradox, and quite probably a bit of Gresham's Law as well.
Jevons says that as the cost of a thing falls, the induced demand rises. This means, computationally, both that we see computers on devices that didn't previously have them (washing machines, dishwashers, toasters, light bulbs), and that the devices on which we have computers and software, most particularly personal computers (and take your pick: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, whatever), stuff additional features in "because they're cool" (Gresham's Law), consuming the additional cycles.
Given various pathological performance failures (swapping, iowait, network lag, etc.), the performance issues can actually get markedly worse.
Using old software on new hardware is often a dream. That's among the reasons I'm so fond of the WindowMaker desktop -- 1989 software (at heart) on 2017 hardware.
Jevons says that as the cost of a thing falls, the induced demand rises. This means, computationally, both that we see computers on devices that didn't previously have them (washing machines, dishwashers, toasters, light bulbs), and that the devices on which we have computers and software, most particularly personal computers (and take your pick: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, whatever), stuff additional features in "because they're cool" (Gresham's Law), consuming the additional cycles.
Given various pathological performance failures (swapping, iowait, network lag, etc.), the performance issues can actually get markedly worse.
Using old software on new hardware is often a dream. That's among the reasons I'm so fond of the WindowMaker desktop -- 1989 software (at heart) on 2017 hardware.