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kiki
15h

Why is real workable Linux with GUI so big? Windows XP is sub 1 gig, any Linux distro (real one that is, not Tiny Core Linux) is several times that. What am I supposed to use for my old ThinkPads and EEE PCs?
I don't need anything more than what XP gives me. Just an OS with GUI that can run software. Give me a Linux distro that does the same that Windows XP does, while weighing the same. Is it too much to ask?

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  • 0
    14h
    Research haiku os! Interesting operating system. I think Debian is smaller than a gb? Just use that and install xfce on it? You also have chromium os, kinda like Google os that is equipped with many netbooks
  • 0
    14h
    For ThinkPad xubuntu runs fine prolly. I do it and they're blazing fast. X270's, decade old
  • 0
    14h
    * chromium os doesn't have shell access afaik - that's why I didn't try it, did not want to have to hack my computer. It must just work
  • 5
    14h
    xp is 20+ years old now. Are you trying to compare modern day linux to it?
    Remeber Dos fitting on a single floppy in the early 90's? Why can't linux fit on a floppy today😭??
  • 2
    14h
    @magicMirror I remember linux on a floppy distros. lol
  • 2
    14h
    @magicMirror so I guess they are still a thing?

    https://lunduke.substack.com/p/...

    Article says 2022 at top. Wild.
  • 1
    14h
    @Demolishun

    https://hackaday.com/2021/05/...

    here is from 2021
  • 1
    14h
    @magicMirror more modern does not automatically mean slower. Modern C and Rust do hold up. At the end of the day, all I ask for is a small Linux-based OS with GUI that can run regular x86_64 and i386 binaries. It shouldn't be that hard.
  • 1
    14h
    @retoor Haiku is good, but it's not Linux. Xfce + anything = more than 1 gig
  • 1
    13h
    @kiki what about buildroot? Build the kernel yourself. No idea how to install it on your pc. @Demolishun 's url mentions tiny Linux what is interesting.
    Haiku is not Linux (that's the cool part, I'm running it myself now), but it is posix compliant. What about just running your suckless dwm?
  • 1
    13h
    @retoor I need a bit more compatibility than Haiku can offer, but Haiku is for sure dope af. I mentioned it in my talk https://miloxeon.com/talks/...
  • 0
    13h
    @kiki I know you don't want TInyCore, but it requires as minimum an i486 processor:

    "The minimum cpu is i486DX (486 with a math processor)."

    So finding something that i386 compatible is not going to happen. Sure you can get x86 32 bit. Is that what you are needing or do you need i386 for real?
  • 2
    13h
    @Demolishun even x86_64 will do. I don't want TCL not because of the arch restrictions — I don't want it bc of compatibility. I don't want to compile software specifically for my os setup, I want just to download ready to use binaries
  • 0
    13h
    @kiki as mentioned on your own site, why not alpine Linux?
  • 0
    13h
    @kiki the difference between rasmus and torvalds is just crazy 😂 But I think rasmus agrees, he said that he didn't know what he was doing when creating php. But why compare those two?
  • 1
    13h
    @kiki TCL is for embedded really. It has defaults that are not suited for general purpose.
  • 1
    13h
    @retoor why not?
  • 1
    13h
    @retoor minimum 512 mb of ram for gui desktop
  • 1
    12h
    I put xfce on a very old laptop and it ran much better than windows 8 which was murdering it horribly
  • 0
    12h
    @kiki because it's apples and oranges. How to compare quality of git to quality of php?
  • 4
    10h
    Backward compatible hardware support is always difficult to get right. That's the main issue with lighter operating systems.
  • 0
    10h
    Debian with Mate is very clean and to the point. I use VirtualBox on seamless mode and it it works like a charm.
  • 1
    10h
    @magicMirror Dos 5-6 was about 8 floppy disks. You had to install first before windows 3, which was another 8-10 floppies.

    And it took ages to install .
  • 0
    9h
    Void + XFce or Dwm
  • 3
    9h
    Go look at art sets.

    In the 2000s, you needed a 1024x768 16 color background and 32x32px icons.

    Today you need 8k 128 bit color movies for a background and icons are a multiple of 6 trillion x 7 trillion.
  • 2
    9h
    @bazmd ah yes, I installed windows with floppys many times. Don't you mean diskettes (the smol floppies?)

    @chatgpt how much diskettes is Windows 3.11?
  • 1
    9h
    @retoor
    Windows 3.11 came on six diskettes. So, you would need six diskettes to install it.
  • 1
    9h
    I was so sure it was more, that's why I asked
  • 1
    8h
    @retoor I think the diskettes are stilled called floppies because the media itself it flexible. Which is why hard drives are HDD. The media is metal disk with magnetic media attached to it.

    The hard cased floppies were 3.5" IIRC. The older floppies had a somewhat flexible case.
  • 1
    8h
    @retoor Windows 95 took a lot more. The disks also had a special non-standard format that fit 2MB per disk instead 1.44MB.
  • 1
    7h
    @retoor I've seen different versions of windows 3.1 (which was named because pi is 3.141) anyway yes, windows could be installed with about 6 floppies, but that's with Dos already installed, the standard packs I remember had at least 10 floppies "diskettes" per pack. I remember them from college looking like packs of cream crackers lol
  • 2
    5h
    @lungdart I… didn’t think about it that way. Good point
  • 2
    5h
    @bazmd wow, I never knew
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