this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2024
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I've got an older machine that I'd like to give a second life. I've always been an Ubuntu fan in the past, but checking their site for a lightweight distri it looks like they've gone all 64 bit. Is that right? Can I still get a recent version for a 32-bit processor?

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[–] norambna 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

MX Linux is a nice Debian based distro that still supports 32-bit. Or you could use just Debian.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

I have MX Linux on my old Dell Inspiron 1300 that refuses to die after 20 years. Great distro, I like it better than Ubuntu in some ways - just difficult to install some software built for 64 bit only of course

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

I've had luck with puppy Linux on 32-bit machines. I also got arch32 working on a few. Arch is a steepper learning curve as the arch-install script doesn't work on 32. Related there's quite a group keeping parabola working on all manner of systems including 32, if libre is more your style.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 2 days ago (1 children)

LMDE. Not Ubuntu based, but Debian based so its the closest I can think on the top of my head. It got 32 bit support and Cinnamon desktop.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

Thank you - I'll have a look at that

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Peppermint - not Ubuntu, but Debian, so it's pretty similar

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago
[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 days ago

Well, Debian has a 32-bit ISO, and since Ubuntu is based on Debian you may consider giving it a try?

https://www.debian.org/distrib/

[–] Shareni 14 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Check out Antix, Debian based, and it's primarily made for older devices and has a 32bit ISO

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago

AntiX runs great on my late 90s Celeron rig with a 1.2GHz single core socket 370 Celeron with 256MB RAM.

Runs waaaaaay better than Windows XP and slightly slower than Windows 98 SE.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I second this suggestion. I have an old touchscreen PC from about 2001 with a Via Eden CPU, which is an incredibly feeble low-power processor that lacks some instructions that were common even in 32-bit days, and Antix was the only reasonably modern distro I could get to run on it.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago

It seems that 18.04 was the last release for 32-bit x86 (i386): https://askubuntu.com/questions/1376090/latest-version-of-ubuntu-for-i386-architecture-32-bit

But you could just go for Debian which still supports it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Poppy Linux should do.

[–] 0x0 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

From a recent search i made, with similar purpose, these may support x86 and are based on either Debian or Ubuntu: antiX, Q4OS, Slax; Zorin Lite, LXLE.

(I haven't combed through the results yet so YMMV and there may be cadavers.)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Thank you - that's a really useful answer. I'll check them out

[–] [email protected] -3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Just install plan 9. It is better than anything else.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Interesting research project but it’s not Linux and doesn’t natively run Linux apps.

https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/21/successor_to_unix_plan_9/