I posted a simmilar question on comp.os.misc, but that was generally for
what operating systems to install on this old thing (a Pentium III, 385 or
so megabytes of ram, 80 gb harddrive).
What old Linux distro would be cool to run on this thing?
I posted a simmilar question on comp.os.misc, but that was generally for
what operating systems to install on this old thing (a Pentium III, 385 or
so megabytes of ram, 80 gb harddrive).
What old Linux distro would be cool to run on this thing?
I posted a simmilar question on comp.os.misc, but that was generally for
what operating systems to install on this old thing (a Pentium III, 385
or so megabytes of ram, 80 gb harddrive).
What old Linux distro would be cool to run on this thing?
I posted a simmilar question on comp.os.misc, but that was generally for
what operating systems to install on this old thing (a Pentium III, 385
or so megabytes of ram, 80 gb harddrive).
What old Linux distro would be cool to run on this thing?
I posted a simmilar question on comp.os.misc, but that was generally for
what operating systems to install on this old thing (a Pentium III, 385 or
so megabytes of ram, 80 gb harddrive).
What old Linux distro would be cool to run on this thing?
I believe there might be 32-bit install images for older releases for
some distros (eg Ubuntu 16.04) and then you could then do successive
release upgrades.
Matthew Camilleri <bunkertoshimatty@gmail.com> wrote:
I posted a simmilar question on comp.os.misc, but that was generally for
what operating systems to install on this old thing (a Pentium III, 385
or so megabytes of ram, 80 gb harddrive).
What old Linux distro would be cool to run on this thing?
Check distro watch, that would probably give you a
decent answer.
But to be honest I would give NetBSD 9.4 a try. I have
that on an AMD 333mhz (like an P3), but that system has
512 MB memory and it runs great.
Now for "an OLD distro", Slackware 8.1 would be fine, and
that was a nice release. But I would not hook the system
up to the internet. Also with OLD distros, the year 2038
comes into play.
Why old Linux distro? Any modern Linux should run. While *most* modern Linux distros don't provide 32-bit install images, all of the 32-bit libraries and kernels are in fact available and maintained (people commonly set up 32-bit VMs for various purposes). You might have to manually create an installer image, but I don't believe that is partitularly difficult.
I believe there might be 32-bit install images for older releases for some distros (eg Ubuntu 16.04) and then you could then do successive release upgrades.
Note: depending on how much memory and/or diskspace, you might have issues with some GUI desktops. You might stick to a lightweight desktop like xfc4 and avoid the heavyweight desktops like gnome or kde.
At Thu, 19 Jun 2025 21:37:07 +0200 "Matthew Camilleri" <bunkertoshimatty@gmail.com> wrote:
I posted a simmilar question on comp.os.misc, but that was generally for
what operating systems to install on this old thing (a Pentium III, 385 or >> so megabytes of ram, 80 gb harddrive).
What old Linux distro would be cool to run on this thing?
I posted a simmilar question on comp.os.misc, but that was generally for
what operating systems to install on this old thing (a Pentium III, 385 or
so megabytes of ram, 80 gb harddrive).
What old Linux distro would be cool to run on this thing?
I posted a simmilar question on comp.os.misc, but that was generally for
what operating systems to install on this old thing (a Pentium III, 385 or
so megabytes of ram, 80 gb harddrive).
What old Linux distro would be cool to run on this thing?
I was considering a RAM upgrade, thanks for the suggestion!
I did get an Eee PC netbook to run Mint on 512M, but it was gruesome.
On 20/06/2025 15:30, Matthew Camilleri wrote:
I was considering a RAM upgrade, thanks for the suggestion!
I did get an Eee PC netbook to run Mint on 512M, but it was gruesome.
It wasn't CPU bound it was ram bound and all swappy.
I did get an Eee PC netbook to run Mint on 512M, but it was gruesome.
It wasn't CPU bound it was ram bound and all swappy.
At Thu, 19 Jun 2025 21:37:07 +0200 "Matthew Camilleri"
<bunkertoshimatty@gmail.com> wrote:
What old Linux distro would be cool to run on this thing?
Original IBM-PCs ... ummmmmm ...... probably better
with 386's on up.
Groovy hepcat c186282 was jivin' in comp.os.linux.misc on Fri, 20 Jun
2025 03:06 pm. It's a cool scene! Dig it.
At Thu, 19 Jun 2025 21:37:07 +0200 "Matthew Camilleri"
<bunkertoshimatty@gmail.com> wrote:
What old Linux distro would be cool to run on this thing?
[Snippitty doo-dah.]
Original IBM-PCs ... ummmmmm ...... probably better
with 386's on up.
Yes, indeed; especially since Linux has never run at all on lower than
a 386. It was originally designed for that very architecture.
On Fri, 20 Jun 2025 16:25:13 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
I did get an Eee PC netbook to run Mint on 512M, but it was gruesome.
It wasn't CPU bound it was ram bound and all swappy.
I tried running KDE 4.x on my Eee PC 701 off an SD card, with no swap
space. It ran fine.
I posted a simmilar question on comp.os.misc, but that was generally
for what operating systems to install on this old thing (a Pentium
III, 385 or so megabytes of ram, 80 gb harddrive).
At Mon, 23 Jun 2025 10:38:16 +1000 Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood <phaywood@alphalink.com.au> wrote:
Groovy hepcat c186282 was jivin' in comp.os.linux.misc on Fri, 20 Jun
2025 03:06 pm. It's a cool scene! Dig it.
At Thu, 19 Jun 2025 21:37:07 +0200 "Matthew Camilleri"
<bunkertoshimatty@gmail.com> wrote:
What old Linux distro would be cool to run on this thing?
[Snippitty doo-dah.]
Original IBM-PCs ... ummmmmm ...... probably better
with 386's on up.
Yes, indeed; especially since Linux has never run at all on lower than
a 386. It was originally designed for that very architecture.
I don't know if the software floating point code is still in the kernel, so likely at least a '486 might be needed for "modern" kernels. The original '386 lacked a FP unit, although some '386 motherboards included a '387 (FP unit).
I don't know if the software floating point code is still in the kernel, so likely at least a '486 might be needed for "modern" kernels. The original '386 lacked a FP unit, although some '386 motherboards included a '387 (FP unit).
On 2025-06-23, Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> wrote:
I don't know if the software floating point code is still in the kernel, so likely at least a '486 might be needed for "modern" kernels. The original '386 lacked a FP unit, although some '386 motherboards included a '387 (FP unit).
Just out of curiosity, what sort of kernel operations would need
floating point? (Aside from fancy GUIs, anyway.)
(In my 50-year career, I can count the number of times I've used
floating point on the fingers of one hand. Yes, I do have an
integer square root algorithm...)
(In my 50-year career, I can count the number of times I've used
floating point on the fingers of one hand. Yes, I do have an
integer square root algorithm...)
Groovy hepcat c186282 was jivin' in comp.os.linux.misc on Fri, 20 Jun
2025 03:06 pm. It's a cool scene! Dig it.
At Thu, 19 Jun 2025 21:37:07 +0200 "Matthew Camilleri"
<bunkertoshimatty@gmail.com> wrote:
What old Linux distro would be cool to run on this thing?
[Snippitty doo-dah.]
Original IBM-PCs ... ummmmmm ...... probably better
with 386's on up.
Yes, indeed; especially since Linux has never run at all on lower than
a 386. It was originally designed for that very architecture.
On 6/21/25 14:55, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
On Fri, 20 Jun 2025 16:25:13 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
I did get an Eee PC netbook to run Mint on 512M, but it was gruesome.
It wasn't CPU bound it was ram bound and all swappy.
I tried running KDE 4.x on my Eee PC 701 off an SD card, with no swap
space. It ran fine.
And I ran Mandriva 2009 with KDE 3.59 on a 700 MHz Coppermine Pentium on
640 MG with one 8 MB reseved Graphic ram on a Inspiron 4000.
It seemed a bit slow so I reduced the Virtural Desktops to only one considering
that it had been using Windows XP before I shifted it to GNU/Linux/KDE.
bliss- Dell Precision 7730- PCLOS 2025.06- Linux 6.12.33- Plasma 5.27.11
I don't know if the software floating point code is still in the
kernel, so likely at least a '486 might be needed for "modern"
kernels.
(In my 50-year career, I can count the number of times I've used
floating point on the fingers of one hand. Yes, I do have an integer
square root algorithm...)
I don't know if the software floating point code is still in the kernel, so likely at least a '486 might be needed for "modern" kernels.
To compare apples and apples the EEEPC was fine as just a GUI. It was
when you wanted to use a web browser and email it collapsed in a
fainting fit
Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> writes:
I don't know if the software floating point code is still in the
kernel, so likely at least a '486 might be needed for "modern"
kernels.
386 support was removed in 2012 or so. 486 support has only just been
removed this year:
https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20250425084216.3913608-1-mingo@kernel.org/
On Mon, 23 Jun 2025 16:43:35 GMT, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
(In my 50-year career, I can count the number of times I've used
floating point on the fingers of one hand. Yes, I do have an integer
square root algorithm...)
Different strokes. I can count the number of times I've used fixed point
on the fingers of one hand.
Asside from very low-level MCUs, almost all processors,
partitularly any 32 or 64 bit processor with a MMU (read: processors capabible of running in Linux) have hardware floating point. And even
ARM Cortex M0 and M4 processors (eg the sorts of processors on
Arduino-type boards) have hardware floating point.
On 24 Jun 2025 09:03:51 +1000
not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) wrote:
You can run an email client and web browser on a Commodore 64, it's
the popular ones that are insanely bloated which are the trouble.
Dillo runs excellently on mine. With the RAM upgraded to 2GB
Firefox (with about:config tweaks and NoScript) is usable for
occasional tasks as well actually.
The original EeePC was a bit anemic,
but once they incorporated the
second-generation Atom CPUs things were much better. My Eee 904HA did
just fine as a daily driver 'til around 2013-2014. Still use it (well,
its replacement) as a portable typewriter; nobody but *nobody* solved
the laptop-hinge problem like Asus did on those first Eee generations.
On Wed, 25 Jun 2025 01:41:16 -0400
c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> wrote:
I had an EEEPC and LIKED IT - especially after replacing Win with MX.
Served me well for years - before I accidentally dropped off a ladder
trying to align security cams.
Mine slid off the roof of my car at ~15 MPH on a freeway on-ramp (I was *particularly* absent-minded that day!) Scuffed it up real good and
cracked the plastic in a couple places, but it still ran perfectly
fine. Wonderful little machines.
To compare apples and apples the EEEPC was fine as just a GUI. It was
when you wanted to use a web browser and email it collapsed in a
fainting fit
On 6/24/25 10:44 AM, John Ames wrote:
The original EeePC was a bit anemic,
Not for THE TIMES.
Le 23-06-2025, The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> a écrit :
To compare apples and apples the EEEPC was fine as just a GUI. It was
when you wanted to use a web browser and email it collapsed in a
fainting fit
For a web browser, it depends mostly on the website which can be poorly designed. For the emails, I don't see why it should be slow.
Le 25-06-2025, c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> a écrit :
On 6/24/25 10:44 AM, John Ames wrote:
The original EeePC was a bit anemic,
Not for THE TIMES.
Depends on what one hear by that. At the time, it was too slow to be
able to run the last version of Windows. So, it couldn't be called a
first class computer. On the same time, Ubuntu was running fine on it,
so it was enough for a day to day usage. And as everyone started to buy
it Microsoft started to be afraid and agreed to sell it with an obsolete version of Windows.
On 05 Jul 2025 09:26:18 GMT, St?phane CARPENTIER wrote:
Le 25-06-2025, c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> a ?crit :
On 6/24/25 10:44 AM, John Ames wrote:
The original EeePC was a bit anemic,
Not for THE TIMES.
Depends on what one hear by that. At the time, it was too slow to be
able to run the last version of Windows. So, it couldn't be called a
first class computer. On the same time, Ubuntu was running fine on it,
so it was enough for a day to day usage. And as everyone started to buy
it Microsoft started to be afraid and agreed to sell it with an obsolete
version of Windows.
The eee PC 701 originally ran Xandros.
I doubt Ubuntu would have worked. I installed Q4OS. It took
several attempts when I got too greedy with the applications to
be installed.
On 6 Jul 2025 07:20:25 +1000, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:
Mine has a classic "Designed for Windows XP" sticker on it. It's funny
how the regular-sized sticker looks huge on the tiny laptop.
Mine doesn't have any of the usual stickers other than a label identifying
it as a 4G Surf on the back. It's been a long time but I think the Windows
XP offering came after I bought it.
Mine has a classic "Designed for Windows XP" sticker on it. It's funny
how the regular-sized sticker looks huge on the tiny laptop.
I posted a simmilar question on comp.os.misc, but that was generally for
what operating systems to install on this old thing (a Pentium III, 385 or
so megabytes of ram, 80 gb harddrive).
What old Linux distro would be cool to run on this thing?
On the same time, Ubuntu was running fine on [the Eee PC], so it was
enough for a day to day usage. And as everyone started to buy it
Microsoft started to be afraid and agreed to sell it with an
obsolete version of Windows.
I have a friend who really wants her EEEPC to run but she hadUbuntu
14.02 installed and is unwilling to turn her back on it and learn to use anoher distribution.
On Sat, 5 Jul 2025 15:31:36 -0700, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
I have a friend who really wants her EEEPC to run but she hadUbuntu
14.02 installed and is unwilling to turn her back on it and learn to use
anoher distribution.
Understood. At this point I've been through so many distros and DEs in the last 30 or so years it's like driving a car. Adjust seat and mirrors, find lights, directionals, wipers, radio, drop it into gear and go. If it's a manual, find out where R is; some of them are weird.
The eee PC 701 originally ran Xandros. I doubt Ubuntu would have worked.Linux Mint worked.
(Whichever web developer came up with the first page that needed
scripts enabled to display static page content should've been shot then
and there, as a warning to the rest.)
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