We’re used to seeing technologies move with the times, and it’s likely among Hackaday readers are the group who spend the most time doing that and are most aware of it. There’s one which we’ll all be aware of which has quietly slipped away for most of us almost without a word, I speak of course of 32-bit computing. For most of us that means 32-bit computing on x86 machines, and since the 64-bit x86 instruction set we all now use has been around for nearly a quarter century, its 32-bit ancestor is now ancient history.
In the world of software that means we’re now in an era of operating systems and browsers dropping 32-bit support, so increasingly keeping a 32-bit machine up to date will become a challenge. That sounds like something just painful and difficult enough to subject to a Daily Drivers piece, so just how practical is it to use a 32-bit machine for my daily work in 2026?
2005 Just Gave Me A Computer
On my desk I have a Dell Latitude D610. It was made in about 2005 in the days when Dells were solidly made, and with its 1.6GHz Pentium M and 2Gb of memory it represents roughly the final throw of the dice for a 32-bit Intel laptop. Just over a year later it would have been replaced by one of the Intel Core series with the 64-bit instructions grudgingly adopted from AMD, but at the time it was a respectably useful machine.
It came into my possession about eight years ago when I used it to test the Revbank bar tab software for my hackerspace, and for the past six years it’s languished unloved in my box there. It’s got an ancient Ubuntu distro on it, so my first task is to pick a 32-bit replacement from 2026. That’s now a dwindling selection, so it’s time to start digging though some minimalist distros. With the supply of those based on mainstream distros drying up as they drop 32-bit support, it’s time to look into more esoteric offerings. This fits well with the ethos of this series, we’re all about the unusual here.
Cutting out the mainstream based distros certainly narrows the field, and out of the promising contenders in the minimalist field, I went for SliTaz. It uses Busybox and the Openbox desktop, that runs from RAM. I was looking for good application support in the repos, and this distro has the things I need. Download it, stick it on a USB stick, and let’s see what it can do. I know one thing, I wouldn’t have been able to download that ISO in five seconds with the internet connection I had in 2005.
SliTaz, A Tiny Distro That’s Really Useful
With a few of the type of quirks you’ll always encounter with a new distro, the SliTaz instllation process was pretty painless. It required me to use Gparted to partition the spinning rust on the Dell, but otherwise the installation was mostly a case of filling in standard responses you’d find on any distro. Then it’s into the Openbox desktop environment. This thing is fast!
Graphical system administration is done through the Tazpanel application that as far as I can see uses the web browser, which soon had me connected to the internet and downloading GIMP so I could do my Hackaday work. The package library is comprehensive, which is pleasing to see. The default web browser is called Tazweb, which is modern enough to render most the sites I normally use, but which for some reason didn’t like Hackaday’s WYSIWYG editor so I was left writing in HTML source. It is quick though on this older hardware, something brought home to me when I downloaded Pale Moon. That browser is usable, but noticeably slow.
This was the first time using SliTaz for me, and I have to say I’m impressed. It’s small and fast compared to other full-fat distros I’ve used on machines of this age, and quirks aside, it’s easy to use and seems well supported. I’ve written most of this piece on it, and unlike some of the previous operating systems in this series, that has not been a painful experience. It has made the Dell into a useful machine again, one which while it’s no powerhouse, is at least no longer a piece of e-waste. There’s also a 64-bit version, making it a good choice for newer old hardware too. (The Raspberry Pi 1 port looks particularly interesting.)
Should You Though, Really?
So what have I proved here? A 21 year old 32 bit machine is a bit slow but still usable here in 2026 with the right software, which is to my mind a testament to the skill and dedication of open source developers and maintainers for keeping this ancient architecture alive. Researching this piece though it’s very obvious that much of the software necessary for modern computing is slipping out of 32 bit support, so I have to question how much longer they can keep it up. Considering that this machine has about the same intrinsic monetary value as a Core2-based machine made a little over a year later which supports 64 bit code I have to concede that what I’ve just done is a fairly pointless exercise. It’s necessary to keep old hardware usable as long as possible, but when it’s lasted over two decades as this one has them maybe we should concede that it’s time to move on. Find a 64-bit laptop from 2007, by all means install 64-bit SliTaz if you want a quick and small distro, and move forward with many more years of software support.
In a way the real star of this piece is the Dell itself. It was a corporate laptop, then as far as I know it was used by the Men In Sheds that shares the building with MK Makerspace, and when they tossed it I nabbed it to play with RevBank. Saved by a piece of Dutch open source software it’s sat unloved for years, and yet it’s still reliable, its battery still holds almost useful charge, its keyboard is robust if a little worn, and its joints are still tight. It’s a shame the architecture is sliding out of relevance, this is almost a useful laptop!
Slitaz may be the only ‘performant’ Linux for very old hardware.
Slackware 15 still has a 32b version, and is somewhat piggish, but it is able to implement useful versions of FF, GCC, and Python. The inability to load stuff on Slitaz that requires a more recent kernel is problematic (last time I looked, they were using the messy 2.6).
I agree. I’ve been running Slackware here (outside of the resident Raspberry Pi collection) for a very long while.
Back in days when Dell laptops had proper cursor keys!
I’ve been buying Dells since the ’90s, professionally and privately, and not been let down by the h/w once.
But now, looking to upgrade my laptop, there are no modern Dell laptops that do not have little tiny half-height arrow keys, with other keys immediately above.
Useless for me editing code, it’s a real concentration breaker when you accidentally press something else when in full flow.
Funny, I remember Dell desktops in the 90s and there was no end to the problems with them! (tech support was so awful). I’m sure the Hackaday audience knows about the XPS lineage, although they have always had Thinkpads to compete with. If your only issue has been cursor keys, you’re lucky.
I had one of the first XPSs. At that point, I think Dell had been sold to investment bankers who were eager to cash in on the name, so they build subpar or outright faulty hardware into the laptop. Mine had an NVidia chip with a factory defect that made it overheat, the heat killed two hard disks and in the end the chip had fried itself. The power brick died a couple of months after purchasing it (and it wasn’t covered by warranty), it had an audio chip from a then defunct manufacturer so no driver updates… It had a serious keyboard, though, like most Dell laptops at that time, even the cheap ones.
AntiX Linux runs great on old hardware and has up to date repos.
I can confirm. Recently installed on 2007 desktop with 2 GB of RAM.
Typing this on a Dell D620 (32bits) 4GB ram and a small SSD with MXLinux with XFCE
It’s a great distro, and because it’s the base for DSL2024 I’ve already taken a look. It’s based on Debian though, so its future 32-bit support is in doubt.
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/05/jennys-daily-drivers-damn-small-linux-2024/
It’s not Linux, but I am guessing that NetBSD will keep that 32 bit support for a while.
don’t understand this idea that a distro’s weight matters. ultimately, only two things can waste modern amounts of memory: “desktop environments” and browsers. just don’t install gnome/kde and any distro will do a fine job in 2G of RAM. but if you run the browser locally, nothing else hardly matters compared to that…
2GB of RAM is enough for running recent Linux in plain text-mode, I guess? ;)
Anyway, HTTPS is also a bad factor I think.
There are recent web browsers such as MicroWeb 2.0 that can run quickly on an 4,77 MHz IBM PC,
but the forced encrypted secure connection simply is too much for an ordinary PC/Amiga/Mac of 80s/early 90s.
It would need help of a proxy server to reach an average website of today.
Run WindowMaker…it is still being maintained. A fully running OS, Xorg, and WindowMaker will still come in at around 80MB RAM use. The killers are always browsers, unless you can get away with ‘links’ or ‘lynx’.
2G is plenty for X11
The truth is that https is not needed for everything… HaD for example…
A lighter signature algorithm would be enougth.
Roughly indeed ;-)
There was this wired little very shortlived “Core Duo” serious of 32bit only dual core CPUs (right before the core2duos came out)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yonah_(microprocessor)
Got a laptop with such a CPU – should try Slitaz sometime (I’ve heard of it and may have even tested it years ago – but not very long).
Thanks for that reminder.
I remember when 16-bits support was dropped from Windows a couple decades ago. You couldn’t run them from DOS or anywhere at all and some really old Windows software or driver wouldn’t work either. It was a sad day when my favorite screensaver had to leave when I left Windows 98se for XP (or was it Vista? can’t remember when).
Hi, I think it flew out in the 64-Bit editions of Windows NT (NTVDM and WoW).
The 32-Bit editions of Windows still had 16-Bit support up to Windows 10, but it now was an optional component that had to be installed.
Though EMS and VGA support was crippled from Windows Vista onwards (XP with VDMSound had highest compatibility).
Nowadays, for example, WINEVDM/OTVDM bring back some Win16 support to Windows NT 64-Bit (such as Win 10 or 11, incl. ARM64).
Example: https://tinyurl.com/3rfp4m5b
But that’s for user applications only. Screensavers (*.SCR) may not work that way, since they integrate in Control Panel.
To make them run it’s better to run Windows 3.1 in DOSBox or use full PC emulators such as PCem/86Box.
They can run 3.1/98SE/XP just fine and emulate period-correct hardware, too.
http://www.raspberrypi.com/software/operating-systems/
32-bit and 64-bit versions are available and really nice for working with Raspberry Pi single board systems as the Linus OS support similar environments.
Works fantastic on my HP netbook 110; I did replace the spinner with an SSD which was an easy and inexpensive upgrade.
I also use the PI OS 32bit version for PCs as a daily driver. There’s still a useful range of usable software eg python, thonny, GIMP, Inkscape, Audacity (2.x), QGIS etc, but I’ve found not everything installs and works from the repository. Openscad didn’t which was a pity. I dare say it won’t last for ever. Runs really well on old laptops. I run it on a vintage inspiron from the days when they had proper keyboards. Another interesting article about a little known OS.
Ahead of you there. https://hackaday.com/2023/09/05/jennys-daily-drivers-raspberry-pi-desktop/
I’ve been assembling wisdom for keeping 32-bit Linux x86 alive, and have linux486.org where I plan to tabulate helpful resources.
Debian is still fine on 32-bit; xfce plus Firefox is quite livable. The issue is the kernel, which Debian doesn’t offer any more. Happily, for desktop there’s the Linux-libre project. Often laptops need binary blobs; for them, it’s easy enough to build from kernel.org.
(This is typed on a Devuan Excalibur install, a systemd-free variant of Debian 13.)
I’m a little skeptical of the death of 32-bit, perhaps news has been greatly exaggerated, as they say. Firstly, one can always go back into the old archive to download 32-bit versions. One can also emulate 32-bit machines, and there’s plenty of uses for both 32-bit Windows and Linux boxen, in the cloud or otherwise, and a lot of Win32 software is abandonware, and free-as-in-beer is always attractive. When the move was made from 16-bit to 32-bit, emulation wasn’t so easy. The amount of storage Linux distro orgs had for old was much more limited. Debian now goes back to 2.0 Hamm, and that was the first bootable Debian CD (iso). Earlier versions had to boot from floppy, while one could use CDs to hold packages and source code… even Yggdrasil Linux, despite creating the first “LiveCD” -one needed two disks (then images) to boot, it isn’t very practical. Maybe it’s because the ghosts of Itanium IA-64 still haunt me, but I’ve seen 32-bit survive quite a bit, even moreso in 32-bit mainframes(for IBM, even 31-bit). I think larger word lengths just have diminishing returns. The embedded world is always going to embrace 32-bit also, and while Windows32 may fade away, embedded Linux will stay. Linux strides a whole lot of “bitness” from embedded to mainframe, I think it’s kinda silly to talk only about Linux desktops and laptop distros, as if that’s all Linux is. The Linux world’s a lot bigger than that.
https://hackaday.com/2021/06/06/is-32-bits-really-dead/
I’m on an Android-15 (4G SRAM and virtual swap enabled) tablet now and I’m running Lotus 1-2-3 from 1986 using Free Magic DOSbox for Android.
Excellent performance and keyboard mapping.
465952 Bytes free
4192256 Expanded
For old BASIC programs I wrote in the ’80/90’s and compiled with QB45, I easily run those on Win-11 using the free QB64.
Obviously there are workarounds for 16 bit s/w.
Why? Just because I can.
Does alpine stille have i386? I wonder howthat cmpates. …
Odd choice for a minimal distro. Can kids nowadays nothing but CSS?
I had a corporate D610 as a work laptop, that I kept for years – I was the last person at the office to switch it out. Mine had the 2gb of ram, and I really loved the 4:3 1400×1050 display. The standard issue laptops after that one went to 1366×768, so I held off as long as I could!
Using that Dell, I find I really like it. Not going to displace my modern ThinkPad, but I think I’ll keep that one around.