Linux Has Largely Abandoned Still-Useful Near-Vintage Computers • Hacker News Board

Re: Linux Has Largely Abandoned Still-Useful Near-Vintage Computers

#31

Post by c22 » Thu, May 06, 2021, 12:48 PM UTC

So the author complains that there are linuxes that run on vintage hardware, but they're not usable by novice linux users. The problem, I guess, is that linux on vintage hardware is too inaccessible to people coming from windows, but all the accessible distros are bloated from too much "Microsoft disease?"

Perhaps the features you want are a byproduct of this "disease" then? If you don't want bloated software you may need to get off the bloated software express train and learn how to use something a little more esoteric.

I'm running Sparkylinux on literally that exact model and vintage of Dell laptop and it works fine. It came with an installer and booted fine off of USB, I'm not sure what the problem is. How many vintage hardware aficionados are there who are also unwilling to learn anything new about computers?

Re: Linux Has Largely Abandoned Still-Useful Near-Vintage Computers

#32

Post by dukoid » Thu, May 06, 2021, 12:49 PM UTC

How about FUZIX? It might be a better fit for vintage computers?

https://github.com/EtchedPixels/FUZIX

Re: Linux Has Largely Abandoned Still-Useful Near-Vintage Computers

#33

Post by anthk » Thu, May 06, 2021, 12:49 PM UTC

rangibaby wrote: post #26

What’s wrong with installing WinXP+office and calling it a day? Even if someone fulfilled your request and got an up-to-date browser etc working on your 256MB laptop Would YouTube even work?

>256MB laptop Would YouTube even work?

mpv + youtube-dl, yes, it would.

Re: Linux Has Largely Abandoned Still-Useful Near-Vintage Computers

#34

Post by gcthomas » Thu, May 06, 2021, 12:50 PM UTC

The most important problem with keeping old computers running is their carbon footprint. Modern machines are much cheaper to run for the same performance, and even considering the construction of new devices an always on devices needs to be modern and lower power. I've replaced an old Asus nettop PC with a Raspberry Pi 4, and electricity usage has dropped from 30W to single digit power consumption.

Old devices need retiring, like old cars.

Re: Linux Has Largely Abandoned Still-Useful Near-Vintage Computers

#35

Post by FirstLvR » Thu, May 06, 2021, 12:50 PM UTC

can someone explain the use of the word vintage? is like something that apparently looks old? something that is actually old?

Re: Linux Has Largely Abandoned Still-Useful Near-Vintage Computers

#36

Post by itomato » Thu, May 06, 2021, 12:50 PM UTC

OP is ready for Buildroot

Re: Linux Has Largely Abandoned Still-Useful Near-Vintage Computers

#37

Post by anilakar » Thu, May 06, 2021, 12:51 PM UTC

Tepix wrote: post #16

tinco wrote: post #7

Linux has done no such thing. The author is complaining about specifically Linux distributions with graphical user interfaces. "Linux developers are suffering from the Microsoft disease. Namely, they seem to be too busy chasing the latest fads" This is also a ridiculous statement. It has traditionally always been Microsoft that wasn't chasing the latest fads. Microsoft has always been late to any new developments and…

He's looking for operating systems that are up-to-date. A currently supported Windows will not run on a 20 year old computer with 256MB of RAM.

But what will run on that Windows even if you could install it on one? Yes, I'm intentionally begging the question here.

Re: Linux Has Largely Abandoned Still-Useful Near-Vintage Computers

#38

Post by ghaff » Thu, May 06, 2021, 12:52 PM UTC

tyingq wrote: post #18

Finding a version of Linux that works isn't an issue. Finding a web browser that's usable on an old version of Linux, with today's web might be an issue. But that's not unique to Linux.

I have to believe he can find a Linux distro that would work, subject to whatever support limitations there were at the time (which could be pretty significant 20 years ago). But he may not be able to do much with it, including connecting to the network with any level of security.

Re: Linux Has Largely Abandoned Still-Useful Near-Vintage Computers

#39

Post by fogihujy » Thu, May 06, 2021, 12:52 PM UTC

anthk wrote: post #6

Slackware or NetBSD would run perfectly. For Slackware, enable ZRAM: wget -O /etc/rc.d/rc.zram https://raw.githubusercontent.com/otzy007/enable-zRam-in-Slackware/master/etc/rc.d/rc.zram sed -i 's,1024,512,g' /etc/rc.d/rc.zram chmod +x /etc/rc.d/rc.zram echo '/etc/rc.d/rc.zram start' >> /etc/rc.d/rc.local Easy GUI on Slackware: You won't need Plasma or XFCE. For sure. Deselect them, as lightweight apps are more than e…

+1 for IceWM. It's ridiculously fast and lightweight while retaining a bare minimum of what it needs to be usable. I rarely touch computers as old as the one in the original blog post, but a simple Debian/IceWM setup will fly on things like netbooks with 1 GB RAM.

I suggest MOC as an alternative music player and mpv for videos.

Re: Linux Has Largely Abandoned Still-Useful Near-Vintage Computers

#40

Post by glitchc » Thu, May 06, 2021, 12:54 PM UTC

In an era where a vintage computer is the equivalent of a $35 Raspberry Pi in terms of compute and memory, the rationale to support the former, from an OS perspective, seems incredibly weak.