this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2025
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Which distro for a 32-bit notebook? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 12 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) by zloubida@sh.itjust.works to c/linux@lemmy.world
18 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Edit: it looks like it's 64-bit compatible finally!

Hi!

I found a cheap 32-bit notebook with a functioning battery. I'd like to buy it, and install Linux on it, without installing X or Wayland, to use it ~~headless~~ GUI-less. I need something very portable just to take with me to take notes during meetings.

My intention was to use Debian but… they do not support 32-bit architecture anymore. I could install Debian 12, but do you know any interesting alternative that still support and will support it in the future?

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[–] palordrolap@fedia.io 9 points 11 hours ago

Tiny Core Linux seems to be 32-bit by default (inferred from their downloads page which links to a separate 64-bit version)

Their minimum package is GUI-less.

Haven't used it myself, but maybe it's what you're looking for. Spin it up in a VM, etc.

This site lists that and four others: https://www.tecmint.com/lightweight-linux-distros-without-gui/ (I only looked at Tiny Core for the sake of this comment, so I don't know if the others are 32-bit or not.)

Crazy alternative: FreeDOS. Pros: Lots of abandonware out there for that platform. Cons: I can't tell how good its support is for USB-connected drives and networking. It definitely has some. Maybe it would be enough for your hardware.

[–] CameronDev@programming.dev 7 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

What CPU is it? 32bit only hardware would be ancient, I'm surprised you found something that old with a working battery?

[–] Thorry@feddit.org 5 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

Yeah that can't be right. The last 32-bit Intel notebook CPU was the Pentium M Dothan, which was last sold about 20 years ago. Or maybe an early Intel Core Duo based on Yonah? Still very old.

@zloubida@sh.itjust.works Are you sure it's 32-bit? What CPU is it?

[–] zloubida@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

It's an Intel Atom N2800. I thought it was a 32-bit because the OS currently installed is a 32-bit. Am i wrong?

[–] Thorry@feddit.org 8 points 10 hours ago (1 children)
[–] zloubida@sh.itjust.works 6 points 10 hours ago

Thanks! That's a great news! Debian, then, it'll be.

Sorry to have bothered you all!

[–] zloubida@sh.itjust.works 2 points 11 hours ago

I was suprised too! And I'm still not sure it's true, I'll check. It's an Asus EeePC 1025C, so yes, it's quite ancient.

[–] steeznson@lemmy.world 4 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Install Gentoo <--- used to be a meme

In the past few years it has become much more user friendly. The install process is very similar to installing Arch, pretty much copy/pasting commands from the wiki (which is even easier if you SSH into the install media from another PC/phone).

The kernel used to require configured by hand so that only relevant drivers were installed for your system; nowadays there is a full fat kernel like you would get with another distro that requires no configuring, called gentoo-kernel-bin.

There are system profiles that cover the widest variety of CPU architectures of any distro to my knowledge. It used to even support extremely old archs before certain core python packages started needing rust as a dep.

Complex apps like Firefox and Rust both have binary versions in the package manager so you don't need to spend a long time waiting for them to compile on an old PC.

Obviously, won't be everyone's cup of tea but if you are a bit adventurous it is an option.

[–] higgsboson@piefed.social 1 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

It is weird to see it be a somewhat practical recommendation. I mained Gentoo pre-0.1 days back when the alpha was revolutionary and the idea of including the stage 3 binaries in the distro was controversial. Wars raged in the forums over which USE flags worked best.

But then compute got so much cheaper I stopped caring and I mostly used corporate distros for work.

I recently installed LMDE on an ancient 1.83Ghz celeron netbook, but it runs like dogshit. Maybe I ought to dust off my USE flag game and see if I can squeeze more life out of it. I'm sure just using something other than cinnamon would work as well, but what fun would that be?

[–] SanctimoniousApe@lemmings.world 5 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

NetBSD. Obviously not Linux, but 32-bit support is likely for a good while yet.

[–] zloubida@sh.itjust.works 2 points 11 hours ago

Oh it may be a good idea! Thanks.

[–] PetteriPano@lemmy.world 2 points 12 hours ago

Choices are getting fewer and fewer. I went with OpenSUSE a couple of years back.

[–] hellothere@sh.itjust.works 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Noob question, how can you use it to take notes if it's headless?

[–] CameronDev@programming.dev 4 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

They might mean gui-less. Log into a tty shell, use vim/emacs/editor of choice.

[–] zloubida@sh.itjust.works 3 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

That's indeed what I meant. Isn't “headless” the correct word?

[–] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

I've never seen headless used that way.

Usually it means a computer without a monitor.

So my home server is headless because there's no monitor plugged in. I just connect with ssh to do whatever and if I really wanted, yes I could install a desktop environment and remote desktop stuff. Still headless.

[–] zloubida@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Oh thanks, I stand corrected.

[–] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 9 hours ago

Meh. We all mess up the terminology sometimes.