Junkers

[raymac46]

I started a thread here recently about old crappy 32 bit netbooks and how they could still run Linux. That got me thinking -

Back a decade ago when I was first learning about Linux, I was fascinated how you could actually install it on very old hardware. So I was always on the lookout for 10 year old junk that showed up at the thrift shop where my wife worked. We are talking hardware that would be 20 years old now.

So here is the oldest piece of crap I ever got Linux to run on:

 

Fujitsu Lifebook 735Tx laptop

 

Pentium 133 MMX

16 MB RAM (upgraded to 80 MB)

2 MB video (800X600 resolution)

12.1 inch screen

2 GB HDD

Floppy Disk Drive

33.6 Dial-up Modem

No CD-ROM

No Ethernet

Non-bootable USB port

Windows 95 (corrupted)

 

No I didn't pay anything for this. You kidding?

 

So what to do? I couldn't install from an ISO (no CD-ROM) or boot from a USB drive. I didn't have dial-up.

Well the laptop had a CardBus port so I was able to put in an Ethernet PCMCIA card. That got me plugged in at least. Then I discovered a bizarre distro called Deli Linux 0.7. Deli had a basic system you could download and put on a floppy disk. Once booted to a CLI you could then connect over the Internet and download the rest of the system then boot to a GUI using TinyX server.

Once I got it going there was a sort of browser called Konq-E and of course text browsers like Lynx would work. But my principal achievement was getting Linux to run. This was on a machine built only 4 years after Linux was even thought of.

So what's the oldest machine you can remember running Linux on?

[securitybreach]

Honestly I do not remember what is the oldest thing I have installed Linux on but I enjoyed your tale.

[raymac46]

Yeah I was just thinking how today you couldn't do this at all probably.

1. Modern kernel wouldn't support an old Pentium CPU like that.
    
   
2. 80 MB? Maybe you could get a tiny CLI based system to run.
    
   
3. 2 GB HDD? not enough to install most distros.
    
   
4. No bootable sources. I don't know if anything around is still available for floppy drives - assuming you still have one on another PC.
   

There comes a point in time where you just have to let go. I have junked this laptop, a PII 266 laptop and an old Athlon XP desktop that wouldn't run Flash anymore. Generally you have a hardware obsolescence window of 10 years - which when you think of it, ain't too bad.

Edited April 15, 2017 by raymac46

[securitybreach]

Puppy only needs:

• 500MHZ processor
  
• 128MB RAM
  
• 512MB free hard drive space to create an optional save file
  
• No hard drive required to boot a Live Disc.
  
• CD-ROM any speed
  

http://www.puppylinu...m-hardware.html

[V.T. Eric Layton]

I've put Linux on some seriously old (Pentium I) machines in the past. With sufficient RAM, they ran like scalded dawgs, for the most part.

[raymac46]

If I remember correctly I was able to boot Puppy from a USB drive on my PII 266 machine years ago. I had a floppy that would do the booting and then read the image etc from the USB.I don't think I ever got it going on the Pentium 133 though.

[goretsky]

Hello,

 

I have a 1GHz Pentium III desktop in my apartment. I was thinking of dropping it off for recycling. But maybe I'll put Puppy Linux on it first.

 

Next oldest things are ThinkPad T42 and T43p laptops. I suspect they'd run Puppy or a similar distro just fine (Pentium M 1.7 and 2.0, IIRC, 2GB of RAM). They ran Windows XP, and Vista and 7, although the latter two not very well--just good enough for basic activities.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

[V.T. Eric Layton]

My oldest system (that still works, actually) is a Gateway computer that was my brother's at one time. It has an AMD K7 Thunderbird cpu in it. Currently, it has Win 98SE installed, but it would ROCK & ROLL with Slackware! I might have to add a little RAM here and there, though.