theLegionWithin
Well-Known Member
wow a 20 year old machine! curious as to what software you're using to maintain an old platform like that? or is it to interface with legacy peripherals?
ANYONE USING 32 BIT
- Thread starter Brickwizard
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wow a 20 year old machine! curious as to what software you're using to maintain an old platform like that? or is it to interface with legacy peripherals?
CaffeineAddict
Well-Known Member
because some people use computers from dark ages?
I should advise a couple of Members that their disparaging comments on 32-bit, and by inference, the owners of computers running same architecture, are not called for.
Not everybody is cashed up, to upgrade.
Further, one of the attractions of Linux to some folks is its ability to extend the life of old, or modestly configured (often hand-in-hand) but still operating hardware.
If we start dishing out such comments, are we any better than a certain very large corporation whose product seem to support a philosophy of "Upgrade or perish"?
For other readers, I was viewing this article just now
https://www.debugpoint.com/32-bit-linux-distributions/
I have used 8 out of 10 of the distros referenced, and found all to have their merits.
Chris Turner
wizardfromoz
Not everybody is cashed up, to upgrade.
Further, one of the attractions of Linux to some folks is its ability to extend the life of old, or modestly configured (often hand-in-hand) but still operating hardware.
If we start dishing out such comments, are we any better than a certain very large corporation whose product seem to support a philosophy of "Upgrade or perish"?
For other readers, I was viewing this article just now
https://www.debugpoint.com/32-bit-linux-distributions/
I have used 8 out of 10 of the distros referenced, and found all to have their merits.
Chris Turner
wizardfromoz
OP
G'day
As you are aware up till the end of last year i was still running an Acer travel mate from 2000 with a single mobile Celeron CPU and an Acer ZG5 netbook with the early 32 bit twin core Atom CPU,
I tested all those in your link [and more over the years], both machines were at their best running Mint-9 & Mint-13 32bit, after 13 mint started getting a bit heavy, the Travel mate was switched to Peppermint32 bit [which is also still available as i type] and the ZG5 on Debian and mx-32 bit. Both machines worked well enough for home computing [the travel mate didn't like streaming] I loved the ZG5 as it fitted in the poachers pocket of my coat, so travelled all round Europe until 2022 [when the boss said she didn't want to go abroad any more.]
32 bit is still popular on embedded applications, [microwave, smart washing machines, coffee makers, some makes of smart TV's etc]
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I have 3 Peppermint in my stable, been using it forever, it seems.
Some people grumble that it does not ship with an installed office suite (legacy of the late great Mark Greaves), but it does not take a lot of energy to type in
or your alternative choice.
Cheers
Some people grumble that it does not ship with an installed office suite (legacy of the late great Mark Greaves), but it does not take a lot of energy to type in
Code:
sudo apt install libreofficeor your alternative choice.
Cheers
Really...64bit first came out in 2003...so it's not exactly new.
Making a comment on old technology is hardly disparaging or inference...32bit is old and out of date and that's a fact and it's not a matter of being cashed up or not.
@wizardfromoz :-
Absolutely, Chris.
It annoys the hell out of me that some folks - just because they have the cash to throw at every perceived "necessary" upgrade - automatically assume that everybody else is in the same boat. Further, they seem to think that this gives them the right to criticise those who either don't OR can't....."pontificating" from the tops of their ivory towers.
It seems to especially be a failing of the middle-class. They aspire to move into the upper tiers of society, while at the same time looking-down on those not as fortunately-placed as them.
It's an old, long-standing issue.
Society has many strata; some are well-off, some are scraping the necessary together for the basics in life, never mind the little luxuries. Most are somewhere in the middle, improving their situation little by little, as & when they are able to......but why disparage those that aren't as fortunate as yourself? Why deny them access to the basic human rights / necessities just because they may not have the resources that you perhaps take for granted....hmm?
We should do everything we can to help, not find fault.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It's a fact that, unfortunately, internet access is fast becoming a necessity simply to be able to access necessary services.....banking, healthcare, etc, to name just a couple. It's getting harder to find a 'local' branch of your bank because they're shutting the brick-and-mortar side of things down wholesale & moving everything online, leaving no option but to need internet access.
And please, everyone, don't start throwing out the tired old aphorisms about how many cheap 64-bit machines there are available as secondhand or refurbs. For some folks, even those are beyond their means.....
Just try to occasionally put yourself in the other guy's shoes, once in a while. There's a whole underbelly to society that many of you simply aren't aware even exists.
Think before you post, yes?
Mike.
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OP
That may be, but manufacturers were still making and selling 32bit machines up to 2010 in the US and Europe [possibly later in some 3rd world markets because of cost]
CaffeineAddict
Well-Known Member
This is really the only reason to need 32 bit OS, but even then these 32 bit computers are not useful for any modern task.
True reason why one should upgrade or dump their 32 bit computer is not because 32 bit systems are about to die but because 32 bit computers are just no up to the modern task unless some individual components are upgraded like HDD or GPU.
Not sure why should money be problem, used 64 bit computer can be bought for cca $250 likely even less or if you reuse old components from previous computer.
Given that 32 bit computers are 15+ years old it's strange one can't save 250 bucks over 15 years.
Here are few refurbished around $250
@CaffeineAddict :-
I should know. 25 years ago, I too was in exactly this situation. It's a part of my past I don't look back on particularly fondly.....but, sh*t happens. You make the most of what fate hands you, and move on with your life as best you can.
It would be appreciated if you could put some consideration into your comments, please.
Mike.
Yeah. What was I saying above? For some folks, even $250 dollars is beyond their means.....and for such as these, they're living hand-to-mouth on a daily basis, with no possibility of being able to save anything for the future.
I should know. 25 years ago, I too was in exactly this situation. It's a part of my past I don't look back on particularly fondly.....but, sh*t happens. You make the most of what fate hands you, and move on with your life as best you can.
It would be appreciated if you could put some consideration into your comments, please.
Mike.
I give normally give away my old hardware to friends or people that I know that have less than me. I'm currently giving away my old gpu, you can just imagine how much that gpu would sell for if I sold it.
I'm not trying to be that guy but I've bought a refurbished laptop a few years ago which is 64 bit at around 200 euros, there's probably ones that cost less. Even when I was a student with a minimal amount to spend because I worked the evening on school days and weekends I was able to get my self a decent 64 bit pc.
I do by giving away my old hardware and by donating some money when I come across someone that seems to need it and I have built up a bit of a connection with them. There's a lot of times that people with lower incomes also smoke cigarettes, one pack a day for a month you could easily buy a refurbished a 64 bit system. Doesn't apply to everyone, but from what I've seen it's a viscous cycle.
Not trying to steer towards politics but the middle incomes don't get social help while people with lower incomes do and people with high incomes can just pay it no matter what. So in the end people with middle incomes have more of a financial burden than people lower incomes and higher incomes. To wrap that up, that's how it's here where I live. I can't say if it's the same in the UK or any other country and there's also a higher class of incomes that don't know the the middle and lower incomes exist.
The question was...anyone using 32bit but it seems to have been turned into the rich vs the poor.
32bit is a thing of the past...like it or not...if someone has a 32bit system and something fails...it's a paper weight.
This also applies to old 64bit computers...my 13 year old 64bit Laptop has old hardware...should the Motherboard or CPU fail it's a paper weight too.
My 12 year old Tower's 64bit Motherboard failed...I had to get a new Motherboard...CPU and Ram not because I wanted to be better than everyone else but because old hardware was socket 1150 and new hardware as of two years ago was socket 1700 and UEFI only.
I like Legacy but that's also a thing of the past as is ADSL...just off-topic...we are all entitled to an opinion.
32bit is a thing of the past...like it or not...if someone has a 32bit system and something fails...it's a paper weight.
This also applies to old 64bit computers...my 13 year old 64bit Laptop has old hardware...should the Motherboard or CPU fail it's a paper weight too.
My 12 year old Tower's 64bit Motherboard failed...I had to get a new Motherboard...CPU and Ram not because I wanted to be better than everyone else but because old hardware was socket 1150 and new hardware as of two years ago was socket 1700 and UEFI only.
I like Legacy but that's also a thing of the past as is ADSL...just off-topic...we are all entitled to an opinion.
theLegionWithin
Well-Known Member
jeez, I must be doing something wrong with my hardware, I've never had anything last half as long - it either fails/fries, breaks, or I upgrade. my oldest bit of kit now is an hp 9470m from... 2013? not sure exactly. I've had to replace both the keyboard and the battery on it thus far and these days it's mostly just a host for my voip solution when I'm working from home (google voice). next oldest is a slightly newer laptop from 2016 but I just use it for playing around with other distros these days.
totally valid point and I agree - to a point. most of my 20s and early 30s I was in a similar position so I can empathize. maybe it's different in the UK or AU but here in the US there's bunches of thrift stores and if you shop around you can generally find used hardware for ridiculously low prices - some arent even all that beat up (many are though). my first laptop back in... 2007 (I think) came from a thrift store. I had to get a more reliable power adapter, more ram, and a small pata hdd for it but it served me well for about 3 years before the magic smoke escaped. dont remember what I paid but it was cheap - I remember that clearly!
CaffeineAddict
Well-Known Member
Maybe it's sh*tty maybe not.
There are 800K open jobs in Germany alone right now, one can get the job tomorrow if they want to work.
Without education one can earn 1200-1800€ every month and many employers give you free bed and in rare cases even food.
A ticket to Germany would cost me nothing because I can get there for free right now, and so could anyone else here because many people go work there so all you have to is ask one of them to please take you with them.
It doesn't even matter if you live in EU or not, in front of our police station are long lines of immigrants every day to get work papers and they get it. (I'll take a picture of them if you don't believe it lol)
I don't count homeless people, that's different story.
And I also don't count those who spend all on alcohol and tobacco.
And exception of folks who are retired, yeah pension sucks everywhere, nothing one can do about it.
theLegionWithin
Well-Known Member
just an aside to this - a youtube channel I enjoy is based from Germany (https://www.youtube.com/@ThePostApocalypticInventor/videos) and German looks to be a very difficult language - is that just me, looking at it from an American point of view? those really long compound words look incredibly complicated.
OP
Its not as bad as you may think for a Germanic speaker, The Romance languages are harder and if you want to punish yourself try traditional Greek.
I guess readers are familiar somewhat with the issues of the thread, but just to review what the initial issue raises, the following observations occurred.
UNIX operating systems, and their derivatives including linux, use time for many purposes, and using a number like the number of seconds since 1/1/1970 is more efficient than messing around with date formats that humans find easier with days and months and years.
Thus, the particular issue in relation to 32-bit and 64-bit machines running UNIX or UNIX-like installations, is that the UNIX 32-bit signed integer, or the number that is used for UNIX timestamps (UNIX time) in seconds will reach its maximum positive value in 2038. In other words, the 32 bits allocated in the operating system for denoting the time, will run out. There's some similarity with the Y2K problem: "not enough space" for the operating system's needs.
The 32-bit value can only repesent a maximum of about 2 billion seconds which started at January 1 in 1970. A 64-bit signed integer can store time for billions of years in seconds, so it won't run out of timestamps any time soon.
Although there's time left to 2038, most distros have opted for 64-bit which just neutralises the issue.
However, there are efforts to keep 32-systems operating beyond 2038. Here are a couple of articles that may be of interest on the issue: https://musingsofmy.today/2025/05/0...al-world-implications/?utm_source=chatgpt.com, and: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-5.5-More-Y2038-Fixes
Essentially, 32-bit systems are not necessarily dead, it's just that keeping that operating system functioning beyond 2038 involves major programming changes which do have developers working on them. Although 32-bit systems may gradually be replaced on desktop systems, there's an ecosystem of embedded systems that work on 32-bits for a number of reasons including size, efficiency for particular purposes and associated software. It could be that 32-bit efforts are niche, or become niche, but there's lots of niche corners in computing that clever people keep alive. Perhaps one oughtn't underestimate the ingenuity of developers and code jockeys.
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@theLegionWithin :-
Fair point. Though at the time I'm talking about - late 90s/early 2000s - most computers were still pretty expensive.....several hundred pounds, if not thousands. You wouldn't have found too many in what you call thrift stores, though that changed rapidly over the course of the next decade or so, as prices steadily came down and far greater numbers of people became tech-savvy.
Until around mid 2022, I was still running a 2001, 32-bit P4-powered Dell Inspiron lappie that originally came with just 128 MB of DDR1. 'Twas only the graphics adapter dying that killed it, else it would still be running now!
I've yet to find a keyboard to match it for sheer "feel". Nicest one I ever used...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As for German, auggh. I always found German incredibly difficult to learn, despite that it was supposed to be a very logically-constructed language. I could never get my head round the fact of the verb - the "doing" word - always being placed at the very end of the sentence. Confused the hell out of me, that one did.
I got on far better with French. This was one that many others found "awkward" to learn, yet to me it seemed to come very easily....
That WAS a lot of years ago!
Mike.
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I once did some math. I'd do it again, but it took a bit of effort to find statistically significant data.
Note: This is not an immediate solution.
If you use a 32-bit system to perform the same amount of work (my math was with a P4) you['d do with an average (I used the i5 that was available at the time) 64-bit solution, the difference you'll pay in electricity over a year will cover a cheap refurbished tower on eBay.
That was using my area's cost for grid-provided electricity. As memory serves, that did not include a monitor.
Again, this is not a solution for someone who simply can't afford to upgrade. There are also people who, believe it or not, don't prioritize computing. But it is perhaps some motivation to save and buy something newer. Modern computers are pretty efficient. Then, there are ARM choices out there with amazing efficiency.
Note: This is not an immediate solution.
If you use a 32-bit system to perform the same amount of work (my math was with a P4) you['d do with an average (I used the i5 that was available at the time) 64-bit solution, the difference you'll pay in electricity over a year will cover a cheap refurbished tower on eBay.
That was using my area's cost for grid-provided electricity. As memory serves, that did not include a monitor.
Again, this is not a solution for someone who simply can't afford to upgrade. There are also people who, believe it or not, don't prioritize computing. But it is perhaps some motivation to save and buy something newer. Modern computers are pretty efficient. Then, there are ARM choices out there with amazing efficiency.
I run 32-bit Debian on an IBM ThinkPad R52. I only use it because it was cheaper than buying a new raspberry pi 5, and I am really pleased with the performance. It runs well with LXDE and I use it for high school robotics. I also run Debian 64 on a 2012 MacBook air. 32 is still alive, and as long as people use it like me, it will live. We will just use the older versions, and 32-bit operating systems.
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