Debian -- News -- Debian 11 Long Term Support reaches end-of-life
www.debian.org
  • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    40·
    2 months ago

    Debian 12 is one of the last holdouts of 32-bit support if you’re like me and have some pretty old devices still kicking. Just a couple years left.

    Originally I was an advocate for dropping 32-bit support, but now that getting newer devices is increasingly unaffordable… I actually think it might be a good idea to reverse course on that just a little and keep 32-blt support for just a little longer. At least until after the AI bubble finally fucking pops.

    • Skullgrid@lemmy.world
      7·
      2 months ago

      I tried to re-use a phone for some command line stuff.

      There’s a lot of arm 32 stuff that’s not working, so it makes it much more difficult

    • muhyb@programming.dev
      7·
      2 months ago

      There are still distros that support 32-bit besides Debian 12, like Alpine and Void. Until when, that’s unknown.

    • kalpol@lemmy.ca
      2·
      2 months ago

      I’ve got an Acer Aspire One that is slow but i Iove the form factor. It is really good for email and document tasks, just really light and comfortable and the battery lasts ages. Gonna be sad when 32bit ends

  • senseamidmadness@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    1·
    2 months ago

    It really is amazing how far back Linux reaches. Aren’t there a few distros with current support that will run on a 486?

    • Arthur Besse@lemmy.mlOPMEnglish
      2·
      2 months ago

      iirc the Linux kernel dropped support for pre-Pentium x86 in the last few years, so any distro with 486 support now would be using an unmaintained kernel.

      I think if you want a maintained operating system for your 486 today, NetBSD is probably the thing to run.

      • senseamidmadness@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
        2·
        2 months ago

        https://ostechnix.com/linux-kernel-ends-486-support/

        I am surprised to learn it was May of last year, with the 6.15 kernel being the first to drop 486 support and the 386 family dropping out back in 2012.

        After a touch more research to figure out what the oldest currently-supported computers would be: I also hadn’t realized the first Pentium debuted in 1993. Pentium and compatibles are still operable, so there are maintained distros out there like Tiny Core Linux that will work on computers made 33 years ago. Just amazing.