I have an old Asus EeePC 1015T netbook with an HDMI (and VGA) output, a screen that glitches if I’m holding it wrong, a huge, tired, unreliable battery, a noisy fan that fails to cool it to less than skin-burning temperatures, and slightly less than 1 GB of RAM. I’ve seen Xubuntu, then Lubuntu, become slowly unusable on it; I’ve tried to install Arch then Sway, but although the device got kinda less sluggish, the leaning curve for a tiling window manager was still too high.
So here’s a thought experiment: could I craft a Linux setup with a themeable yet cohesive Windows 98-like UI, that I can plug to an old monitor (1280x1024 should be enough) and that can be just responsive enough to do basic, focused tasks (writing, listening to music and webradios, browsing Wikipedia, perhaps playing Doom) using this kind of very limited hardware? The idea would be to have some sort of reliability: instead of installing an old distro and freezing all updates, I’d ideally go for a modern basis that I can upgrade without worrying of watching my setup collapsing on itself; so I could reproduce this setup on other, similarly old computers, and turn them into retro distraction-free appliances where you could chill with a classic Windows feel and Winamp themes.
I have some ideas but I’m not sure about the best approach. I’ve tried an immutable Fedora image (Blue95), but after a full day and night of waiting for the setup and rebase to complete, the end result was way too slow to be usable. Then I went for BunsenLabs on a Debian Trixie basis: it works okay performance-wise, but there’s a lot of obscure menu items pointing to small apps to customize (you have to know what a “conky” or a “tint2” is, and also understand that the default panel is a third different thing). I’m thinking of trying postmarketOS, since the Alpine base sounds lightweight enough, but I havent figured out how to install it on my EeePC.
Could Wayland be possible with these hardware limitations? If so, how should I setup it? I guess labwc (pictured above) is the best fit for a Win9x experience, but what is needed afterwards? LXQt or Xfce or something else?
I’m curious to hear your thoughts!
I support it. But you will need the streaming software to fetch and listen to webradios and the like.
Have you considered just running an old version of Linux?
Forget Wayland, the performance is inferior on ancient hardware, if it works at all. Postmarket OS is not a good idea either. Xfce likewise going to be too slow. Lxqt is borderline usable, but not great on this computer, so imo vanilla debian with Lxde and put some effort into theming, it can look modern enough and its the best option if someone wants lightweight without the ability to diy a WM based setup to their needs. And yes basic w98 like operation is possible.
Did you try puppy linux? It has excellent support for older hardware. I remember that there were some older versions that would even run flawlessly on my 192MB RAM ancient desktop, over a decade ago. Give it a try
Only for 2/3 of those 1GB to be eaten by Firefox :)
You’re trying way too hard to make a very specific set of hardware work.
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The chip in there is going to have a 2GB memory limit, even if it you could expand it and found a module for sale.
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The CPU is an old style Intel N or C, both of which have just awful TDP at that age. You’d also have to have it plugged in constantly and draining more power because the battery is certainly dead.
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The addressable memory is almost certainly only going to be working for 32-bit without a BIOS hack. I say this because the majority of these produced were 32, but very few were 64. Telling the difference should be obvious by trying to install a microkernel.
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Even if you had the best set of circumstances - 64bit, 2GB memory - the rest of the hardwre5is likely to no longer be very compatible with modern kernels. Network, audio, power saving…etc. Almost all certainly will not work as expected.
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A $100 SoC board will have better outcomes and cost efficiency for running in general.
I just don’t see the effort paying off here in taking what was already antiquated hardware when it was produced and making it work now just because it exists.
To your questions:
- No. No modern GUI stack will work with it.
- Wayland won’t work with the available memory, at least not for long. Launching a browser would probably start OOMKilling things on any modern distro.
I just don’t see the effort paying off here in taking what was already antiquated hardware when it was produced and making it work now just because it exists.
I take it you don’t know the Linux community very well. One of the most common uses I see is getting use out of outdated hardware.
Of course I don’t, you’re totally right. My contributions since 1998 mean I have zero idea of how to speak to common sense.
Using antique hardware to run things is a fool’s errand, and always has been. It’s ridiculous to run outmoded, inefficient, and ineffective hardware for any general purpose.
If there was a HUGE community out there who really needed something to work with Linux (a la Asahi), then I’d say go for it.
This is a dumb waste of time with little payoffs except to say you did it. No community benefits.
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