this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2025
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libre

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The struggle for libre computing cannot be disentangled from other forms of socialist reform. One must be willing to reject proprietary software as fiercely as they would reject capitalism. Luckily, we are not alone.

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Old Computer Ideas (hexbear.net)
submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by RedRook1917@hexbear.net to c/libre@hexbear.net
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I have been gifted a few ancient laptops from the stone age (2005-2014). Any ideas on what I can do with them? Are there any modern Linux distros that would run on old hardware like this? I'll take any suggestions this wonderful community has to offer.

Edit: The laptops are:

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[–] Bruja@hexbear.net 3 points 3 days ago

Have an old ThinkPad that has a first-gen Vulcan GPU, and with Proton Sarek and Bazzite use it for light gaming while away from desktop. Tried several other distros and getting support for old hardware was frustrating but Bazzite worked out of the box.

Another has Chimera Linux and the setup guide was easy to follow and had a smother time with it than any automated install, which was a surprise as it was really intimidating. It uses replacements for old, slow software and runs lean. Only Wayland, no Xorg. Dinit instead of systemd. BSD userland instead of GNU coreutils (so “doas” instead of “sudo” and such). So lean, fast, responsive even on the older hardware since there’s no legacy overhead.

Still, YMMV and depending on hardware and goals there are dozens of distros for older hardware to try out. That eLive retrowave one is fun and feels like using an even older laptop and dazzles onlookers but is certainly not going to be to everyone’s taste.