Into the Twilight

[raymac46]

It's been a long time coming, but the sun is finally starting to set on the 32 bit Linux O/S. Certain distros have already dropped 32 bit support; others are cutting out the oldest categories of 32 bit processor.

Does this affect you or bother you?

I have a couple of netbooks - now about 8 years old - that use 32 bit first generation Atoms. That is it for my current hardware stash. However my daughter has a perfectly good Dell Dimension 8400 desktop system from 2004 that I would like to repurpose for her to donate. It only supports 32 bit O/S.

Of more concern than Linux itself is support for 32 bit software. Already you can't run Google Chrome 32 although Chromium is still out there.

One of my favorite uses for Linux has always been fixing up old hardware. The original machines I installed Linux on back when I started are now at least 15 years old - some would be 20. Maybe they'd still be OK as a file or print server but forget using them as desktops. As usual, it appears that there is a rolling 10 year fixer upper window for Linux and old machines.

Right now AntiX is one of the go-to distros for the netbooks, and I'd like to try Lubuntu on the Dell my daughter has. The way looks to be clear up until Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. That would take me with support up to 2021 or longer and that would be the most anyone could expect from an old machine I think. But it definitely is Twilight Time.

Edited May 16, 2017 by raymac46

[securitybreach]

I understand your point about hardware but at a certain point, the hardware becomes too old to run anything anyway. We have an old P4 at work that has window's 2000 on it and it works fine but we know you could never install anything current on it. We keep it to play Space Cadet pinball on it sometimes.

 

Linux is still great for old hardware but I wouldn't expect it to perform very well on machines 10 years old or older. The OS may install fine but you would barely be able to browse any website due to the heavy use of javascript nowadays. Personally, I am glad that they are doing away with 32bit support as it has its limitations and anything that came out in the last 15 years supports 64bit.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

I have a couple Dell 610s and an old Gateway system that used to belong to my brother. All are 32 bit. One of these days, I'm going to revive the old Gateway (AMD K7 T-bird) just for the fun of it. I'll run Slackware32 on it at that time. I don't think there's any plans to eliminate the 32 bit version of Slack, but if that happens, I can always download older versions of Slack through numerous repos around the world. I actually have Slack 9.x thru 13.37 on CDs in my archived software pouch.

 

I won't mourn the loss of 32 bit Linux too much. I'm still waiting patiently for 128 bit hardware and OSes. What's the hold up? Actually, it'll probably be a while, if ever. It would cost billions and billions worldwide to institute 128 bit systems in homes and offices; not to mention that fact that the software companies would need to create 128 bit versions of their software for use in personal and business environments. The transition from 32 to 64 bit took quite a bit of time (over a decade).

 

Interesting thread at Reddit -->

[raymac46]

I agree that most hardware made since 2005 at least supports 64 bit. The only exceptions are a couple of Atom processors made in 2008 and they are more obsolete than a 2005 Pentium D or Athlon 64.

There;s restoration and there's useful restoration. The netbooks are quite useless but the old 2005 Dell Optiplex 620 I had went on to a 3rd career as a PC for my daughter's preschool - running Linux Mint Xfce (64 bit.)

[securitybreach]

Agreed

[ebrke]

I'll never get anything more than OpenSuSE 13.2 running on my old Dell Optiplex from 2003. I believe SuSE did away with 32-bit after 13.2, but I was surprised when 13.2 would run fairly well on the old hardware. I use NoScript, so block most java scripting, and while a bit slow, the old girl will still browse or download email. I rarely use it though.

[abarbarian]

I swapped over to 64 bit cpu's a few years ago for my main pc's so the death of 32 bit will not really affect me. Mind you my backup Dell is only 32 bit. I recon you will be able to do 32 bit at least until 2020.

Every thing has its day. I have junked a perfectly good portable word processor whilst moving, cost over £1,000 back in the early 90's. No one wanted it and as it had sat in a cupboard for ten years or more it had to go. I have no regrets the thing paid for itself in the first few weeks.

[goretsky]

Hello,

 

What about Puppy Linux? It seems to support some very minimal hardware configurations.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

[raymac46]

I have experimented with Puppy Linux in the past. It has never stuck with me though.

• Puppy seems to exist in a variety of forms/distro bases and I have never been able to decide which one was appropriate for my needs.
  
• I have found Puppy's interface to be a bit cartoonish and cluttered but that may be just me.
  
• Puppy has a weird way of installing and seems best suited for a flash drive.
  
• Some wifi solutions (uhh..Broadcom) drove me nuts with Puppy although Atheros always worked well.
  

Back when I had a very old laptop that would not boot from USB I found that there was a handy version of Puppy that actually booted off a floppy drive and then could load files from the flash drive. That was a good idea at the time.

[abarbarian]

Puppy's are great but like the real thing they can be a tad tricky to tame and control. I have tried a few over the years and for the most part they have performed well though it is a few years since I last ran one.