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Arch Linux pulls the plug on 32-bit

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Re: Arch Linux pulls the plug on 32-bit

#81

Post by weavie »

morganvachon wrote: post #72
sevensor wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a good point about the BSDs. I've been meaning to try a BSD for a while -- it sounds like a good fit for my fleet of aging thinkpads.

I've had excellent results running OpenBSD on old laptops. I have a Dell Latitude CPx (Pentium III) that is 100% supported and runs very fast (relatively speaking) under that OS. I ran it on a Latitude D400 and D620 as well until I gave those machines away (I'm a bit of a Dell collector if you can't tell), and it works fairly well on an Acer Aspire One netbook I keep for when we go camping and my wife wants to have a…

How well does suspend/resume work? I tried FreeBSD on my old laptop and couldn't get that to work. Its the only thing keeping me from trying again..

Re: Arch Linux pulls the plug on 32-bit

#82

Post by StreakyCobra »

CJefferson wrote: post #78
Latty wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm an Arch user, and it literally broke nothing for me. Packages were updated, life went on. You seem to be complaining because other distros hadn't done the right thing. I don't see how that's Arch's fault. Are we to hold back for the lowest common denominator? Do we need every distro to join together and agree to a switchover date? There was official guidance from Python on the switchover, this wasn't some maveric…

I thought the official advice was that 'python' should remain 'python2'? from https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0394/ (not yet replaced/update) "for the time being, all distributions should ensure that python refers to the same target as python2 ."

Archlinux made the switch in 2010 [1], and this PEP was created in 2011. [1] https://www.archlinux.org/news/python-is-now-python-3/

Re: Arch Linux pulls the plug on 32-bit

#83

Post by floatboth »

jasonkostempski wrote: post #33

FreeBSD did this too, right after I had just setup a local Minecraft server on an old Pentium D. It's a shame because it works perfectly for that purpose and now it'll just have to sit on FreeBSD 10 for the rest of it's life. I don't plan expose it to the outside world so that's OK for me, but surely 32-bit machines still have a purpose.

Um, what?! Where did you find that?

https://www.freebsd.org/where.html 11-RELEASE and 12-CURRENT snapshots are still being published for i386!

Re: Arch Linux pulls the plug on 32-bit

#84

Post by 40acres »

Off topic: I've been in the market for a new laptop that runs Linux, I've never had a PC that ran Linux (closest thing was a Macbook running MacOS, I'm also discounting my work laptop that allows me to VNC into SuSe). After doing some research it seemed like Arch Linux might be a good fit, it seems like a very minimal OS that allows for great customization. However I'm unsure how user friendly it would be for someone who has never installed a Linux distro.

Can anyone comment about their experiences with moving to Arch and the learning curve?

Re: Arch Linux pulls the plug on 32-bit

#85

Post by the_commentary »

40acres wrote: post #84

Off topic: I've been in the market for a new laptop that runs Linux, I've never had a PC that ran Linux (closest thing was a Macbook running MacOS, I'm also discounting my work laptop that allows me to VNC into SuSe). After doing some research it seemed like Arch Linux might be a good fit, it seems like a very minimal OS that allows for great customization. However I'm unsure how user friendly it would be for someone…

To be honest Arch as a distro is more for advanced users -- if you're trying to dip your toes into linux the quintessential starting point is probably Ubuntu or ElementaryOS (linux mint is also pretty good). Arch's philosophy is very much to give you the bare minimum and then you can get what you need to stack on top of it, which often involves a bit of config tweaking. This might get frustrating if you aren't fairly intimate with working with a linux command line environment.

Re: Arch Linux pulls the plug on 32-bit

#86

Post by floatboth »

hsivonen wrote: post #51
nailer wrote: post #3

Other tech folk have always talked about 32 bit support as a necessary evil since smaller types mean less memory. The complexity of managing a secondary 32 bit environment has been worse than the memory usage of 64 bit apps for a very, very long time.

x86 isn't just 32-bit. Linux distros have been reluctant to upgrade their notion of 32-bit x86 to require SSE2. This means that x86 isn't just 32-bit but involves weird 387 floating-point math when other mainstream architectures use IEEE floating-point math.

Interestingly however, Linux distros have been quick to adopt i686. I remember setting up a router on a small PC with a VIA processor several years ago. Inserted a Debian hard drive into that box — "cmov instruction not supported" instead of booting. The i586 version existed of course, but wasn't the default download IIRC.

Re: Arch Linux pulls the plug on 32-bit

#87

Post by morganvachon »

weavie wrote: post #81
morganvachon wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had excellent results running OpenBSD on old laptops. I have a Dell Latitude CPx (Pentium III) that is 100% supported and runs very fast (relatively speaking) under that OS. I ran it on a Latitude D400 and D620 as well until I gave those machines away (I'm a bit of a Dell collector if you can't tell), and it works fairly well on an Acer Aspire One netbook I keep for when we go camping and my wife wants to have a…

How well does suspend/resume work? I tried FreeBSD on my old laptop and couldn't get that to work. Its the only thing keeping me from trying again..

With OpenBSD, my experience has been generally good. On some laptops it just works by default, on others you have to configure it a bit and it will work fine after that. Here's the relevant man page:

http://man.openbsd.org/apmd

Re: Arch Linux pulls the plug on 32-bit

#88

Post by DanBC »

km3k wrote: post #50
jonathonf wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which ones provide a similar approach to Arch? A six-year-old 32-bit processor (e.g. an Atom in an EeePC 901 or HP Mini 311c) is more than capable of running a modern desktop system.

FYI It's actually 8 years old for the EeePC 901 and the last 32-bit Atoms came out in 2009.

The processors are now 64 bit, but the low ram means you're going to suffer if you use a 64 bit OS.

Also, for some of these machines they use a 32 bit UEFI, so even if you want to use a 64 bit OS you'll need some weird tinkering to get it installed.

Re: Arch Linux pulls the plug on 32-bit

#89

Post by rev »

jonathonf wrote: post #34
StreakyCobra wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are other distributions better suited (even specialized) to be run on old hardware.

Which ones provide a similar approach to Arch? A six-year-old 32-bit processor (e.g. an Atom in an EeePC 901 or HP Mini 311c) is more than capable of running a modern desktop system.

Debian testing is similar in "rollingness", Slackware and Alpine are similar in the sense of "no frills". OpenBSD is a good non-Linux choice to try out.

Re: Arch Linux pulls the plug on 32-bit

#90

Post by akoster »

jonathonf wrote: post #29
akoster wrote: post #24

It is a shame that many major Linux distributions are dropping 32-bit x86 support. I used to be able to say with confidence that the old laptop or PC in your garage can run any major Linux distribution, breathing new life into aging hardware. For example, I have an old ThinkPad T42, which I use to test out new Linux distros, which incidentally, is currently running Arch. Using older hardware increases the chances tha…

> I wonder if Arch would consider doing the same (supporting 32-bit x86 as an alternative architecture). Yes: https://lists.archlinux.org/pipermail/arch-ports/2017-Januar... (Also https://lists.archlinux.org/pipermail/arch-ports/2017-Januar... )

This is great news! Thanks for posting! I will definately keep an eye on this.
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