4 ms·

Isn't this where Linux excels?

CharlesColeman 7y ago
It seems a lot of the examples are about BIOS and other types of firmware, though. I'm not sure if Linux would be much help with that.
privateprofile 7y ago
Not sure if Linux excels on this globally, but I have an elderly relative doing all their email, web browsing and basic docs on a 2003 IBM Thinkpad running Lubuntu 16.04, with basically zero issues. Everything, including the old ATI X300 graphics card, worked out of the box. I also have a younger relative using a 2008 Dell d630 for all his schoolwork, running Ubuntu 16.04. Again, the old Nvidia Quadro worked out of the box.
snvzz 7y ago
Netbsd doesn't disappoint either.
m463 7y ago
As long as folks still maintain those i386 distributions... On the other hand, if your old hardware is used for games, there's probably some game emulator to help :)
pmontra 7y ago
I scanned a document today with my Canon N607U from 1997 on Ubuntu 19.10. I still remember when I plugged it in into a Ubuntu 8.04 laptop in 2009 and Ubuntu told me nothing about it. Trained by years of Windows and countless popups and notifications I assumed it didn't work. I even looked for Linux drivers then I tried the OS scanner program: the driver was already in the kernel and the scanner was working, no need to bother me with messages. I never had problems with anything else (printers, webcams, etc). On the sad side, my laptop from 2006 is still working (actually it's resting in a drawer most of the time) but it can't use a kernel more recent than some old 3.x version because anything newer won't support its ATI X1600 graphic card. I should try to boot it from a 19.10 USB stick but I'm not confident that somebody bothered to readd support for something that was dropped along the way.
- iforgotpassword 7y ago
  There isn't much point to running the most recent kernel on such old hardware anyways. You could try if current Ubuntu still works with old 3.x kernels. It might just do, systemd would be the most likely offender to stop the show I guess. But if 3.19 still supports your ATI, you even got yourself a kernel that's still under LTS. Just in case you need a silly project for the holiday season...
- happycube 7y ago
  Can't guarantee it for laptops (unless it's something common like a Thinkpad T60), but I bet there's a free driver for the X1600 in 19.04. The proprietary ones from AMD have long been unsupported on the 1600 tho.
  - pmontra 7y ago
    I googled and it seems that a patch has landed in 18.04 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1791312 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1791312 I'll give it a try. Thank you!
rini17 7y ago
Not really, there's no stable in-kernel driver API/ABI, so unmaintained drivers get broken quickly.
- tyingq 7y ago
  On the other hand, I've been able to get some unsupported stuff working by changing something like VID/PID in an existing driver. Not straightforward, but at least it can be done.
jchw 7y ago
Yeah, I think it’s fair to say that. I just booted the latest version of ArchLinux32 on a Wyse Cx0 thin client, which I believe runs a Via C7. It certainly wasn’t high end hardware for the time, being a thin client; had to reduce the framebuffer allocation in BIOS to have enough RAM to boot, but it works, and there’s even active driver development for the GPU with the OpenChrome project. Of course if you need proprietary or old out of tree modules the story gets worse, but most interesting hardware I’ve plugged in works without me needing to worry about the details, in my experience.
- Decade 7y ago
  It’s getting more difficult to run 32-bit x86. The main Arch Linux dropped official support in 2017, Ubuntu dropped it in 2018, Fedora in 2019. Mint is good for old hardware, but they intend to drop 32-bit in 2020. There are LTS releases committed to supporting the 32-bit OS for several years to come, but the writing is on the wall: They have entered the long twilight of no official support, but still working if you can hack it together.
heavyset_go 7y ago
If the driver isn't mainlined, you're entirely dependent on the whoever wrote the driver to update it for new kernel versions that break the old driver API and ABI.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
moonbug 7y ago
ahaha. yes, but probably not in the direction you mean.
shortformblog 7y ago
Author here. Yes, but it’s not universal—the Connectix Quickcam I cite in the piece did not work, but I’m sure that’s a result of its age and its use of a mixture of parallel and PS/2 ports. (It did pass through on KVM, though, but I couldn’t get it to start!)

It seems a lot of the examples are about BIOS and other types of firmware, though. I'm not sure if Linux would be much help with that.

privateprofile 7y ago

Not sure if Linux excels on this globally, but I have an elderly relative doing all their email, web browsing and basic docs on a 2003 IBM Thinkpad running Lubuntu 16.04, with basically zero issues. Everything, including the old ATI X300 graphics card, worked out of the box. I also have a younger relative using a 2008 Dell d630 for all his schoolwork, running Ubuntu 16.04. Again, the old Nvidia Quadro worked out of the box.

snvzz 7y ago

Netbsd doesn't disappoint either.

m463 7y ago

As long as folks still maintain those i386 distributions... On the other hand, if your old hardware is used for games, there's probably some game emulator to help :)

pmontra 7y ago

I scanned a document today with my Canon N607U from 1997 on Ubuntu 19.10. I still remember when I plugged it in into a Ubuntu 8.04 laptop in 2009 and Ubuntu told me nothing about it. Trained by years of Windows and countless popups and notifications I assumed it didn't work. I even looked for Linux drivers then I tried the OS scanner program: the driver was already in the kernel and the scanner was working, no need to bother me with messages. I never had problems with anything else (printers, webcams, etc). On the sad side, my laptop from 2006 is still working (actually it's resting in a drawer most of the time) but it can't use a kernel more recent than some old 3.x version because anything newer won't support its ATI X1600 graphic card. I should try to boot it from a 19.10 USB stick but I'm not confident that somebody bothered to readd support for something that was dropped along the way.

iforgotpassword 7y ago
There isn't much point to running the most recent kernel on such old hardware anyways. You could try if current Ubuntu still works with old 3.x kernels. It might just do, systemd would be the most likely offender to stop the show I guess. But if 3.19 still supports your ATI, you even got yourself a kernel that's still under LTS. Just in case you need a silly project for the holiday season...
happycube 7y ago
Can't guarantee it for laptops (unless it's something common like a Thinkpad T60), but I bet there's a free driver for the X1600 in 19.04. The proprietary ones from AMD have long been unsupported on the 1600 tho.
- pmontra 7y ago
  I googled and it seems that a patch has landed in 18.04 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1791312 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1791312 I'll give it a try. Thank you!

rini17 7y ago

Not really, there's no stable in-kernel driver API/ABI, so unmaintained drivers get broken quickly.

tyingq 7y ago
On the other hand, I've been able to get some unsupported stuff working by changing something like VID/PID in an existing driver. Not straightforward, but at least it can be done.

jchw 7y ago

Yeah, I think it’s fair to say that. I just booted the latest version of ArchLinux32 on a Wyse Cx0 thin client, which I believe runs a Via C7. It certainly wasn’t high end hardware for the time, being a thin client; had to reduce the framebuffer allocation in BIOS to have enough RAM to boot, but it works, and there’s even active driver development for the GPU with the OpenChrome project. Of course if you need proprietary or old out of tree modules the story gets worse, but most interesting hardware I’ve plugged in works without me needing to worry about the details, in my experience.

Decade 7y ago
It’s getting more difficult to run 32-bit x86. The main Arch Linux dropped official support in 2017, Ubuntu dropped it in 2018, Fedora in 2019. Mint is good for old hardware, but they intend to drop 32-bit in 2020. There are LTS releases committed to supporting the 32-bit OS for several years to come, but the writing is on the wall: They have entered the long twilight of no official support, but still working if you can hack it together.

heavyset_go 7y ago

If the driver isn't mainlined, you're entirely dependent on the whoever wrote the driver to update it for new kernel versions that break the old driver API and ABI.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

moonbug 7y ago

ahaha. yes, but probably not in the direction you mean.

shortformblog 7y ago

Author here. Yes, but it’s not universal—the Connectix Quickcam I cite in the piece did not work, but I’m sure that’s a result of its age and its use of a mixture of parallel and PS/2 ports. (It did pass through on KVM, though, but I couldn’t get it to start!)