The Old Computer Challenge
18 points by msangi
18 points by msangi
This page does not lead with a clear summary of what "the old computer challenge" is about, which makes it needlessly confusing for anyone it is trying to recruit as a new participant. It seems to expect people to read the page backwards and fill in the gaps.
So far as I am able to infer, a thesis statement might be something like
In the old computer challenge, you will attempt to spend a week using only an "old" computer of your choice, and share your experience.
I did this the first year; might give it a go again this year on the same eeePC. Maybe a fresh Debian install with kmscon.
I wish I could try this but being married with children means this is likely out of reach (I fear limiting myself to something like this puts an unnecessary strain/stress on my spouse).
It doesn’t look too serious, so maybe just treat it as “I’ll only use an old computer for my own personal hobbyist purposes for a week” or something else more attainable. (Not affiliated, obviously)
It's explicitly allowed to use a modern computer for work, and there are home tasks sufficiently work-like (paying bills, scheduling kids appointments) that need a modern computer for web access that I'd put them under the same allowance.
This might as well be the best place to ask: I have a 15-year old Lenovo notebook PC. My favorite Linux distro (DietPi) doesn't work on it, because it's 64-bit only and the CPU on the notebook is 32-bit. What's the best distro for this kind of hardware? Debian-based preferred if possible.
antiX offers a 32-bt build based on Debian Trixie, otherwise you're limited to Bookworm-based distros. Good ones to try (if you don't like antiX) include Q4OS Trinity, Exe GNU/Linux and PeppermintOS. Non-Debian distros include Void and Alpine (both have up-to-date 32-bit builds).
I admire the people who can stick with this :)
I've got a P3 1GHz here that has a SSD, 512MB of RAM, etc, and it's still incredibly painful running any modern OS or software - I use modern Linux on it to download or copy things on that I want to use on the Windows 98 and 2000 installs. Even with really minimal window managers it's still quite painful!
Have you tried HaikuOS? My eeePC 701 4G with 512Mb RAM runs really well with it, even the wifi works.
If it were me, I'd put Win2k some other age-appropriate OS on it. Running modern Linux on something like that kind of feels like it defeats the point as all you're experiencing is "like my modern computer, only painfully slow".
You make a good point in general (I've definitely fallen into the trap of recreating my modern setup on an old computer for... little benefit), but note that it sounds like the parent poster is using Win98 and 2k. I suspect they have a similar setup to mine, where I use a modern OS (NetBSD) to safely download old software from the web, for subsequent use on a vintage OS (Win98).