I didn’t know whether to mark this NSFW or not but it’s time to buy a new computer if you haven’t upgraded in multiple decades.
If anyone is actually using a 486 still, you can try using the kernels that the CIP maintains https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/cip/linux-cip.git They actually still support kernel 4.4
This is absurd! Think of all the 486 cpus that will become EWASTE! LINUX HATES THE ENVIRONMENT!
/s in case not obvious.
That’s a real showcase of how linux actually cares about its users over other companies. It’s great to see that hardware I buy now will be supported on linux for a long long time into the future.
Whew. My 586 is safe.
I remember when Mandrake was a young distro – a redhat derivative – and they (gasp) chose to compile for i586 instead of i386. People were like VROooooOM! And a bunch of other people were like: why would you target CPU instructions that not everyone has?!
For now
I think it should be possible to still run Linux on almost every 25 years old computer.
If the computer is older than this, it really becomes a piece of history and I can accept that it’d take efforts from the user to keep it in use, just like a collection car.
I only hope no bricking update is gonna be proposed to the people running such old hardware. The distribution should check if the hardware is compatible with a newer kernel before updating.
Still I think it’s important that Linux remains the OS of choice for old hardware and that the some distros remain deficated to these museum pieces.
Nooooooooo my…wait I’ve never actually owned a 486. Carry On.
First they came for 486, and I did not speak out - because I’ve never actually owned a 486…
Boo.
Me neither but I did own an 6502 based compy.
My first PC was a Pentium 2 though.
I never owned a 486 either. My first upgrade after the 286 was a Pentium.
Linux newb here. So I’m assuming this would make the kernel smaller, and take up less space. Would it be significant?
Actually, most devices today run an amd64 kernel (amd or intel cpus in typical desktops or servers) or arm (phones, some modern notebooks). Those architectures never supported 486 cpus.
I assume, the code removed is in the x86 branch, excluded when compiling for other architectures. As others said, I guess this is mostly about maintainance effort and testing.
(But then i don’t know much about the kernels. Maybe there’s some interplay between amd64 and
x64x86 architectures.)It’s probably less about making the kernel smaller and more about security and reviewing code. The less code you have to maintain, the fewer vulnerabilities even if it’s old code.
I would doubt almost 20 year-old code is taking up a lot of space or presenting new vulnerabilities. And it’s obviously open source so if anyone needs it, they can always use an older kernel or maintain it. Sometimes, your oldest code is insane. I wish there was a budget for every company and government to pay retirees part time to go back over their oldest code that’s still in use. A lot of retired programmers would do it for fun and nostalgia. And to be horrified something they wrote 20 years ago hasn’t been updated or replaced.
I wish there was a budget for every company and government to pay retirees part time to go back over their oldest code that’s still in use. A lot of retired programmers would do it for fun and nostalgia.
There is no budget for it AFAICT but there is https://github.com/abandonware and others trying to help on that path.
The size difference is not significant. This is about the maintenance burden. When you need to change some of the code where CPU architecture specific things happen you always have to consider what to do with the code path or the compiler flags that concern 486 CPUs.
Here is the announcement by the maintainer Ingo Molnar where he lists some of the things he can now remove and stop worrying about: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20250425084216.3913608-1-mingo@kernel.org/
Probably not a lot of space savings, but certainly a reduction in complexity, which helps programmers keep everything together and frees their time to work on the newer stuff
Sorry, my bad. I found my old 486 PC in my parent’s attic recently, and started planning to get it running again
i like this. hardware should be the least disposable as possible, as long as there is manpower to maintain it. as long as theres people still using it fruitfully, its not trash.
but what abt my 386SX tho
Also check out ELKS for your even older CPUs.
“My baby, you have blossomed into a wonderful adult. It’s time to stop relying on us now, though. Go on and do big things, or something…”
Is the coming of age ceremony when he loads Doom?
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You could simply continue to use the older versions - with Linux, you’re not forced to update if you don’t want to. Since it’s open source, you could even continue modifying it freely. I think the people behind Linux are being a bit overkill in supporting older hardware in the most recent releases.
Of course.
You can still run perfectly good software on it. You’ll just be limited by the resources, so you’re not playing Crysis by any means.
Just a few years ago I got a 286 up and running with Minix. It was neat, but I didn’t get as far as compiling the Ethernet driver, so I didn’t really do much with it and it eventually finished its journey to recycling.
Its like… Bro… Its a 486 CPU
Can always go for NetBSD?
I guess? I’m not very knowledgeable about BSD.
" The minimal configuration for a NetBSD/i386 system requires at least 32M of RAM and 512M of disk space. Smaller configurations are possible, but require e.g. custom kernel configurations.
Any i486 or better CPU should work - genuine Intel or a compatible such as Cyrix, AMD, or NexGen."
Wow, to wake up and see that a large number of people have downvoted my simple noob comment is definitely something. C’mon people, chill, I am quite new to all this stuff.
And how much have you paid for the last 18 years of support? You can continue to run Linux on old hardware, as long as you’re willing to pay for the development. 18 years is one hell of a freemium model.
