(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Colonel Panic wrote:Yes it is - it's great to see Legacy getting more exposure as well. I think my machine's too recent to be able to run it but I'd be happy to give it a go if it were possible.

The magazine also raises the question of whether there's still a place for 32-bit distros now that seemingly the whole distro world's gone over to 64-bit. It doesn't seem that long ago (maybe 2010) that I was having to write "64-bit" on the disk when I burnt a 64-bit distro off to a CD or DVD as nearly all distros back then were 32-bit - now it's the other way round.

For single board computers 32bit hardware still makes sence due to the limited ram and I believe that they are still making computers like this. Also many mambers here will still be using lalegacy 32 bit hardware for quite a while.

One big issue is that ram is expensive and without sufficient ram a 64bit system will perform worse than a 32 bit sytem. A few years ago you use to be able to buy a decent computer for $500. Now in my opinion a decent machine costs $1000. I believe a large part of the reason for this is the higher ram cost of 64bit systems. Given this I believe that it is with great privlage that developers are writing off 32 bit systems. Many poorer people all across the world could benifit from cheaper 32bit systems.

s243a wrote:

Colonel Panic wrote:Yes it is - it's great to see Legacy getting more exposure as well. I think my machine's too recent to be able to run it but I'd be happy to give it a go if it were possible.

The magazine also raises the question of whether there's still a place for 32-bit distros now that seemingly the whole distro world's gone over to 64-bit. It doesn't seem that long ago (maybe 2010) that I was having to write "64-bit" on the disk when I burnt a 64-bit distro off to a CD or DVD as nearly all distros back then were 32-bit - now it's the other way round.

For single board computers 32bit hardware still makes sence due to the limited ram and I believe that they are still making computers like this. Also many mambers here will still be using lalegacy 32 bit hardware for quite a while.

One big issue is that ram is expensive and without sufficient ram a 64bit system will perform worse than a 32 bit sytem. A few years ago you use to be able to buy a decent computer for $500. Now in my opinion a decent machine costs $1000. I believe a large part of the reason for this is the higher ram cost of 64bit systems. Given this I believe that it is with great privlage that developers are writing off 32 bit systems. Many poorer people all across the world could benifit from cheaper 32bit systems.

Thanks for your reply, and I quite agree. My machine can and does run 64-bit software but I'm limited to 3 GB of RAM so I can't make the most of a 64-bit distro.

It's always made me sad when perfectly good computers with several years' life left in them are discarded just because they can't run a modern version of Windows. Boot up something like Wary, Legacy or AntiX and they're good for at least 90% of the things people do with their computers every day, and with a few games thrown in as well.

There are distros which will run on even older computers, like Puppy Turbo Extreme, Deli Linux and ConnochaetOS. Turbo Extreme is comfortable even in 32 MB of RAM and some people have run it in 16 MB, but the browser supplied is unfortunately outdated for many of the sites people will want to browse with it. (Opera 11 works well in it though.)

Colonel Panic wrote:Yes it is - it's great to see Legacy getting more exposure as well. I think my machine's too recent to be able to run it but I'd be happy to give it a go if it were possible.

Confirmed, sadly - I burnt it off to a CD-R today and had a go at booting it up on the machine I describe in my signature below but it wouldn't load.