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Linux on Older Hardware: The Complete Revival Guide

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Re: Linux on Older Hardware: The Complete Revival Guide

#13

Post by muterad_murilax »

haunter wrote: post #7

And you can go even smaller with TinyCore Linux [0] or the xwoaf-rebuild [1] 0, http://www.tinycorelinux.net/ 1, https://web.archive.org/web/20240901115514/https://pupngo.dk... Honestly it comes down to what do you mean by using Linux. In 2026, or well at least since the mid 2010s, the biggest hurdle will be the web browser. Do you need that? If yes then you are already in the higher system requirement pool. If not t…

> And you can go even smaller with TinyCore Linux or the xwoaf-rebuil

Sure, but in this time and age, do they really have to settle for such extreme 90s looks as defaults? I mean, Windows XP Media Center Edition can surely be considered as "lightweight" today and it featured the gorgeous Royale theme back in 2005.

Re: Linux on Older Hardware: The Complete Revival Guide

#14

Post by ladyanita22 »

muterad_murilax wrote: post #13
haunter wrote: post #7

And you can go even smaller with TinyCore Linux [0] or the xwoaf-rebuild [1] 0, http://www.tinycorelinux.net/ 1, https://web.archive.org/web/20240901115514/https://pupngo.dk... Honestly it comes down to what do you mean by using Linux. In 2026, or well at least since the mid 2010s, the biggest hurdle will be the web browser. Do you need that? If yes then you are already in the higher system requirement pool. If not t…

> And you can go even smaller with TinyCore Linux or the xwoaf-rebuil Sure, but in this time and age, do they really have to settle for such extreme 90s looks as defaults? I mean, Windows XP Media Center Edition can surely be considered as "lightweight" today and it featured the gorgeous Royale theme back in 2005.

Yeah, this is what always surprises me with modern software targeted towards low-specced computers.

Windows XP run fine in 256MB ram computers yet it could be altered to make it look fantastic, with the Royale or Royale Noir themes.

I guess even Linux back then could be made beautiful on similarly specced computers. Yet, AntiX or even LxQt is hideous despite consuming more resources!

Re: Linux on Older Hardware: The Complete Revival Guide

#16

Post by pmontra »

The post is missing a section about video cards.

My old laptop from 2006 has an ATI x1600. I remember that I lost v sync with kernels past 3.something so I had to put the kernel on hold while the other packages updated around it. That was around 2012. Maybe the issue is fixed by now but old graphic cards can make an old PC run only as a headless server. It's been years since I booted it.

Re: Linux on Older Hardware: The Complete Revival Guide

#17

Post by ivanjermakov »

nasretdinov wrote: post #12

It's interesting how on a server 2 GiB of RAM can get you quite far, however on a desktop that's pretty much the minimum feasible amount. It used to be the opposite: servers needed plenty of RAM and CPU compared to desktops

My free tier 1GB GCP instance is doing quite wel as a reverse proxy into my private network. Although traffic is very low.

Re: Linux on Older Hardware: The Complete Revival Guide

#18

Post by type0 »

pmontra wrote: post #16

The post is missing a section about video cards. My old laptop from 2006 has an ATI x1600. I remember that I lost v sync with kernels past 3.something so I had to put the kernel on hold while the other packages updated around it. That was around 2012. Maybe the issue is fixed by now but old graphic cards can make an old PC run only as a headless server. It's been years since I booted it.

I have one Nvdia system where it's locked to their drivers in BIOS meaning I can't use AMD. Now Ubuntu has dropped support for old GeForce it's essentially a brick, thanks Nvidia and Canonical.
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