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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Gentle reminder to everyone that support for #windows10 ends in about 90 weeks. Many computers can't upgrade to Win 11 so here are your options: (mastodon.social)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Gentle reminder to everyone that support for #windows10 ends in about 90 weeks. Many computers can't upgrade to Win 11 so here are your options:

Continue on Win 10 but with higher security risks.
Buy new and expensive hardware that supports Win11.
Try a beginner friendly #Linux distro like #linuxmint. It only takes about two months to acclimate.

@nixCraft @linux @windowscentralbot

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[–] LeFantome 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You might be surprised. First, I run EndeavourOS daily on a 2008 iMac and it not only runs but is very useful. I browse the web, watch YouTube, video conference, create office docs, play older games, do basic programming, run Docker ( well, Podman ), watch movies, read ebooks, edit audio, etc. With EOS, all my software versions are up to the minute.

The reason I use that machine so much is because of where it is. I like that spot. The reason I have not put something else there is precisely because it works so well that I have no reason to. I use XFCE to keep it light and have to restart the web browser from time-to-time to free up RAM but it is fine.

The first 64 bit Intel chips were in 2007 but AMD released the K8 way back in 2003. I do not have one to try but my guess is I could install the most recent EndeavourOS on such a machine.

That gets us to 21 years ago pretty easily.

You would be amazed at the upgradability of older hardware. You can drop 16 GB of RAM and an SSD in a 2009 MacBook.

However, you can run a 100% modern Linux distro on hardware much older than that. Many distros, including Debian, have 32 bit versions that support Pentium Pro and up. Most software available in regular Debian is also available in the 32 bit versions. The package release numbers are the same. So, totally up to date and modern software. You can run Debian 12 on 32 bit processors.

That takes us all the way back to hardware from 1995! That is just 14 years after the first IBM PC!

In practice, the biggest problem is going to be RAM. Anything below 6 GB for 64 bit and 4 GB for 32 bit is going to struggle with the size of modern software ( especially web browsers! ).

I am not sure how far back you have to go before the processor is just too slow for everyday stuff. I would guess around 2003 or so, depending on what you are doing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

You can drop 16 GB of RAM and an SSD in a 2009 MacBook.

You got a tutorial for that? Because I have a 2009 MacBook and I'd love for it to run better than it does currently. I put Debian 12 XFCE on the thing and it works, just very slowly.