Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
[Yeo Kheng Meng] had a question: what is the oldest x86 processor that is still supported by a modern Linux kernel? Furthermore, is it actually possible to use modern software with this processor? It's a question that surely involves experimentation, staring into the bluescreen abyss of BIOS configurations, and compiling your own kernel. Considering Linux dropped support for the 386 in 2012, the obvious answer is a 486. This supposition was tested, and the results are fantastic. You can, indeed, install a modern Linux on an ancient desktop.
Source: https://hackaday.com/2018/01/07/go-retro-to-build-a-spectre-and-meltdown-proof-x86-desktop/
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @08:54AM
11 minutes to boot and 5.5 minutes to shut down? Is this the default setup with everything compiled in and udev trying to load every module, every service enabled and the machine paging constantly?
I had a Pentium 120 with 16 MB RAM (he has a 486 with 32 MB RAM, twice as much) booting in 13 seconds and shutting down in 6 seconds not that long ago, and Linux doesn't become much slower over time, as long as you don't enable all the new stuff you probably don't need anyway.
Of course that P120 wasn't running a web server, DNS server, etc, like my regular PC, but it did run X, fvwm (like my regular PC) and Firefox (Firefox has since dropped support for anything considered "old", being the secure choice for people on older computers is no longer a goal apparently).