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.
Gentoo
Thanks, I will add that. I thought that they had stopped support for x86_32. Happy to be wrong.
Gentoo normally keeps arches for as long as the kernel still supports them, although package testing for some of the rarer ones may be limited. 32-bit Intel is still treated as a major arch and receives the full set of tests and package stabilizations.
Your worst problem is going to be web browsers. Chrome and derivatives don’t run on 32-bit, and Firefox is supposed to be dropping support. If Seamonkey follows Firefox, that leaves you with Pale Moon as the only reasonably maintained option.
Complinig everything on that? End me now
You can use bin packages and compile certain things where you’ll get preformance. It would be good to have a kernel optimised for that hardware cause you need everything you can get.
You could compile on another PC and but you’d miss the -native optimisation.
For my Chromebook I did a bin kernel then compiled everything else and did bin Firefox. I tried compiling the kernel but ran out of disk space cause only 10 gb of space available.
Thanks, will have a look at that option. I haven’t even dipped my toes into compiling, but have looked over posts and tutorials in the past.
If OP is ok using “DIY” distros, there’s also Void Linux. It provides binary packages and supports many architectures — x86_64, x86, arm64, armv6, armv7.