My 2001-era Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 PDA had the best slide out keyboard ever made, nothing has come close at all. A CF wifi card brought it so close to being a smart phone before there were smart phones.

I would buy it today as a phone if they’d just remake the original with an updated linux with QT equivalent option and updated screen hardware.

You are maybe conflating stability with convenience.

“Why is this stable version of my OS unstable when I update and or install new packages…”

The entire OS falling down randomly on every distribution during normal OS background operations was always an issue or worry, and old Debbie Stables was meant to help make linux feel reliable for production server use, and it has done a decent job at it.