I like bunsenlabs on old hardware. It's Debian based with openbox, some bits from xfce, and some custom config utilities. It's a continuation of Crunchbang Linux which was discontinued. Openbox is very nice and light, but the default configuration on Debian is not really usable. Xfce or Mate on Debian can be good choices as well.
PsychOS Linux – 32-bit distro for older computers
11–20 of 39 posts
Re: PsychOS Linux – 32-bit distro for older computers
#12Try Damn Small Linux
That's been abandoned, right? The last "News Milestone" is May 3, 2004, and I can't find any other timestamps or dates on the website. It'd be OK for a project like that to have old, frozen software versions as long as it receives security updates, but the website makes it damn near impossible to assess whether any maintenance is taking place at all.
Delicate Linux would be preferable. Or better, just plain NetBSD.
Re: PsychOS Linux – 32-bit distro for older computers
#13Try Damn Small Linux
That's been abandoned, right? The last "News Milestone" is May 3, 2004, and I can't find any other timestamps or dates on the website. It'd be OK for a project like that to have old, frozen software versions as long as it receives security updates, but the website makes it damn near impossible to assess whether any maintenance is taking place at all.
To be fair, "old hardware" is kind of frozen in time by definition. DSL is what it is. If you want to play with hardware with 32mb of ram, it does what it does. It isn't really an OS you want to "use" or "expand upon". I would not suggest to connect it to the Internet or expect any kind of updates, security or otherwise.
The main case for it at this point is retro computing. Most retro computing enthusiasts run era correct OS (MacOS7-9, Mac OS X, Win9x, DOS, AIX/IRIX/SunOS/HPUX, BeOS, Amiga 3x, etc). Those are not getting security updates either.
I put it in the same category as Haiku, Visopsys, AROS and ReactOS, fun toy for older computers. Not very relevant as day-to-day. I still have and expand a collection of live CDs for the P3/PR era laptop. Again, those don't get security updates, but are fun to explore.
Personally, I am more into Linux window managers (and AwesomeWM maintainer) to recreate the interesting concepts from those OS rather than rice 90s silicon. However I really enjoyed using a Pentium1 laptop full time for a few months in university in the late 00's just to prove a point. But for that I compiled my own OS rather than use a distro. If you want to get the most out of these machine, that's the way.
Re: PsychOS Linux – 32-bit distro for older computers
#14Try Damn Small Linux
Abandoned, but one of the guys behind it went on to make Tiny Core linux.
I have very fond memories of being a broke student with crappy computers, booting stuff like DSL, slitaz and puppy.
Re: PsychOS Linux – 32-bit distro for older computers
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Raspbian on an old dell laptop. ? Raspbian is for ARM, what are you talking about?
there's an x86 version specially for old computers: https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/raspberry-pi-desktop/
Well, you learn something every day! That's fascinating; I'll have to take a look. Thanks:)
Re: PsychOS Linux – 32-bit distro for older computers
#16Black Ray-Bans, drop top Porsche, and a Maxell Metal Cassette playing PsychOS trailer music.
It's a good Sunday.
Re: PsychOS Linux – 32-bit distro for older computers
#17There's some argument for using a 32-bit distro on systems with 4GB of RAM or less - https://www.sevarg.net/2021/12/18/raspberry-pi-32-bit-vs-64-...
(It's not likely worth it for most cases, but in theory half-size pointers can help.)
Re: PsychOS Linux – 32-bit distro for older computers
#18Gentoo still builds i486 versions: https://www.gentoo.org/downloads/
Get going! By the time X finishes compiling we'll probably be at 128 bit.
Re: PsychOS Linux – 32-bit distro for older computers
#19I like bunsenlabs on old hardware. It's Debian based with openbox, some bits from xfce, and some custom config utilities. It's a continuation of Crunchbang Linux which was discontinued. Openbox is very nice and light, but the default configuration on Debian is not really usable. Xfce or Mate on Debian can be good choices as well.
I loved Crunchbang, there was also ArchBang, which I used a few times.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ArchBang https://archbang.org/
Re: PsychOS Linux – 32-bit distro for older computers
#20Try Damn Small Linux
DSL, Slax, and Puppy Dog Linux were all my go-to back in the day, because I had terrible internet (Australia, yay) and hand-me-down computers! I think DSL isn't up to date anymore though. I wonder if Slax et al. still exist?
Oh neat, Slax still does! https://www.slax.org/
250mb 32-bit ISO too :) Neat! One of the first Linux adventures I had was trying to install Slax to a HDD: It really wants to be a live CD, so it was a fun challenge that taught me a lot about Linux at the time.