I was just given an old nettop from I think around 2010 - An old Acer one nettop intel atom CPU N270 @ 1.60GHz 2GB ram, it has Windows XP on it and it seems fairly smooth/quick, but I haven’t done anything other than boot it up and check the spec. I was wondering what would be best to install on it and found that choices are very limited. Linux Lite nor Lubuntu seem to be an option anymore, and almost all of the options I tried under x86_x64 on Distrowatch no longer provide an x86 or 32 bit version. These are the main ones I have seen:
Damn Small Linux (DSL) - https://www.damnsmalllinux.org/
Puppy Linux - https://puppylinux-woof-ce.github.io/
AntiX Linux - https://antixlinux.com/
CachyOS - https://cachyos.org/
Tiny Core Linux - http://www.tinycorelinux.net/
Maybe a couple of others, but could anyone recommend the best option or maybe a couple that would be best and any ideas as to what may be the best use for it? Practicing coding? Just browsing? Etc. I think it may be between DSL and Puppy, but I am hoping to hear any others and will happily try them all. Linux Mint and Debian keep coming up in searches but unless I am missing something, I don’t see anything about x86/32bit versions in the latest versions.
x64-compatible CPUs have been the norm for a very long time now, which is why most modern distros have dropped support for older 32-bit x86-only CPUs. Debian dropped it with Debian 13, so anything based on that - think Ubuntu, Mint, and others, would be in the same boat. 2GB of RAM would be pretty performance-limiting on most modern distros too.
That’s one of the reasons why things like Tiny Core and Puppy exist, though. Specifically for old/slow-by-today’s-standards systems. I haven’t used any of them because I’m not running anything that old, and I quite like modern KDE. I saw an Action Retro video on youtube the other day where he got Tiny Core running on a Pentium 133 with 128MB of RAM, lol.
One Linux distro I’m aware of that might be worth checking out is Q4OS. It’s a lightweight distro that offers an older but still supported 32bit version.
Thanks, I haven’t ever heard of it, I will definitely add that to try, thanks.
I was running AntiX out of your list on my old atom eee-pc pretty successfully the last 2-3 years. Was using it as a workbench pc with an old vga screen and keyboard connected, and it worked well enough for simple pdf /datasheet reading and terminal sessions.
For specs, I think it was the same cpu but only 1gb of ram. Honestly with 2gb of ram your options are much broader, the one part you’ll run into trouble with is the browser with multiple tabs anyway. I thought to remember there was also a community-maintained 32bit Archlinux variant?
Edit: https://www.archlinux32.org/ that’s the one I believe. It has a more restricted package repo but otherwise is just Arch.
Thanks, I created a Ventoy stick with the distros above, and the only one that I can get to run is AntiX. Puppy (Noble _ Bookworm) get the same error as this person (ventoy: not a valid block device), so I will read through that thread. The DSL doesn’t respond and Command Line halt error. I think the others were the same. So I am on my 3rd OS creating a bootable USB from ISO, and so far no others have worked either. It may end up AntiX the only option, although I have seen others mention Gentoo - which I thought had stopped support for x86, and a couple of others to try, so I look forward to them :) MX, Q4OS, OpenBSD and Debian.
That’s a little annoying with all the others not working. Haven’t seriously tried most of them so I’m afraid I can’t really help you there - though if you ever try Q4OS that others have suggested let me know if it works well cause I may give that a whirl too on the little eee.
If you decide to stick with antix, I could maybe see if I find some of my old notes. I vaguely remember the wifi giving me some trouble and the homebrewed settings panels of the distro can be… a little funky :-)
Good luck!
I have a few such netbooks. I’m currently running debian oldstable (bookworm) on them. GuixSD also provides x32, but I still have to try that on slow computers. (Sidenote: maybe old Mesa versions work better for GUI). Ofc, it’s ok for trying BSDs (or maybe experimental stuff like Hurd and 9front).
About usage: you can put it into your garage, workshop, storage room, whereever you wouldn’t want your regular laptop (gets dirty, dusty).
For “desktop” purposes:
- emacs (editing text, taking notes, developing some software, reading email, rss client)
- reading books: epub and especially pdf were made for MUCH slower devices (you should avoid scanned books)
- IRC and matrix (in emacs, for example)
- discord client (yeah, I know, you shouldn’t do it)
- can play 360p H.264-encoded videos (you could use a smartphone for that, but I don’t)
- play mp3, act as a radio and play music or podcasts from the internet
- SSH and other remote access stuff
- testing whether software you write could run on slow hardware.
- it is a terrible experience to run a browser, but it works. I could browse the catalogue of a local library from it
- if something was doable in the 90s, the machine can handle it (mine came with diablo 1 installed)
As others already wrote, it’s also good for homeservers (web/gemini/gopher, git, mumble, irc bouncer).
If it is an actual nettop, and not a netbook, it probably has a mini-itx board with PCI on it, which makes it able to test/use old PCI cards. I used it for that purpose a little bit (there are better options, PCIe->PCI bridges). The atom D525 nettop board I have also has a mini pcie slot, which I converted into a full-sized one. Now it has a similarly slow Radeon HD 6450 in it, which helps it play videos. Should work up to 1080p, but now I realize I haven’t actually tried that.
I just hit the same issue a few days ago. So Debian 12 (Bookworm) still has i386 support, but that support may end as soon as next year as they haven’t confirmed i386 as an architecture for LTS.
If you do go with Debian, you can easily choose a lightweight desktop during installation.
Thanks I will try that. I thought Debian had stopped x86_32 builds. I will definitely try that. 👍
