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.

  • LeFantome@programming.dev
    1·
    1 day ago

    DSL is just AntiX with a curated list of software in a CD image. Just go with AntiX if you want to go that route.

    Another option to consider is Q4OS Trinity. Trinity is essentially the KDE 3 desktop which is still surprisingly good and very light on resources.

    All of these, including MX Linux, are Debian based and have access to the full Debian repos.

    A potential issue with all these Debian based distros though is that Debian itself has moved away from 32 bit in Debian 13. It is hard to say how long these others will stay the course.

    Adelie Linux is another one people forget about and certainly worth giving a spin. It is not Debian based.

    Tiny Core will be the “fastest” as it runs out of RAM but of course that leaves you even less RAM for other things (like a browser). So it depends on your use case.

    Are you sure CachyOS has 32 bit support?