Low latency is still available. Get a fast gaming keyboard/mouse/monitor/NVMe SSD. Use a latency-tuned kernel, e.g. with full preemption enabled. Disable swap and run a userspace OOM killer to avoid the problems this would otherwise cause. Run Xorg with compositing disabled and TearFree disabled. Disable vsync everywhere. Don't use software that caps the framerate low (e.g. terminals using libvte[0]). Turn off all UI animations.
Most software I use feels more responsive than anything from the Windows 95 era.
Most software I use feels more responsive than anything from the Windows 95 era.
[0] https://github.com/GNOME/vte/blob/master/src/vte.cc#L10704