While it looks like ethernet I don’t see a plug on it, so it could be any ethernet looking cable (coaxial, rj11, etc). Could be wrong though

2000-2010 seems a pretty good guess though, who would throw brand new stuff away

I use it on all of my servers and an old laptop already. But indeed might be a nice idea to play around with it (dual booting) and maybe switching once i find some time.

I’m kinda in the same boat as you I think. Currently still using win10 and waiting it out, till either windows becomes decent or I switch to linux. Currently considering linux because I don’t game as much anymore, but kinda too lazy to switch till something breaks.