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Following the links in the article, someone got windows xp to load on a 486…
this post was submitted on 09 May 2025
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Lol, from the title I thought that 486 models of specific CPUs were going to be affected, that sounded way more impactful
If anyone is actually using a 486 still, you can try using the kernels that the CIP maintains https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/cip/linux-cip.git They actually still support kernel 4.4
The latest kernels still work on 486 - kernel 6.14 currently.
I just meant after support is dropped. The CIP I think supports each of its kernels for 10 years? So whatever the last kernel is before they officially drop support will still be maintained by them for a long time. :)
Got it. I was not familiar with this Linux Foundation initiative. Very cool.
It looks like they support the LTS kernels as an extension of Debian. So, kernel 6.12 will get 10 years of support after Debian Trixie launches with it this summer.
That means 486 will be fully supported until at least mid 2035. Amazing.
That's what I'm saying! It's kinda awesome how long things get supported in linux land!
Sorry, my bad. I found my old 486 PC in my parent's attic recently, and started planning to get it running again
I think it should be possible to still run Linux on almost every 25 years old computer.
If the computer is older than this, it really becomes a piece of history and I can accept that it’d take efforts from the user to keep it in use, just like a collection car.
I only hope no bricking update is gonna be proposed to the people running such old hardware. The distribution should check if the hardware is compatible with a newer kernel before updating.
Still I think it’s important that Linux remains the OS of choice for old hardware and that the some distros remain deficated to these museum pieces.
I think older versions of the kernel (that support 486 hw) would still be available to download so someone could use them if they wanted. Not sure what other extre work would be involved though.
The issue is that older kernel versions will lose support and stop getting security updates eventually. I don't know if there is enough of a community around old CPUs for fixes to be backported by the community.
You wouldn't want to keep such old equipment connected to a network anyway. That's only inviting trouble down the line.
What does the age of the hardware have to do with it?
You can run a 486 today with the latest Linux kernel, the latest C library, and the latest utilities. A 486 is not vulnerable to Spectre and Meltdown. It may be more secure than a typical i7.
Come to think of it. Acting as a bastion server may be a legitimate use of a 486 today.
i love backwards compatibility as much as the next guy, but at some point, if there isn't enough of a community to backport fixes, there probably aren't many using them. if a tree falls in the forest, you get the idea.
Yea if you have a 468 connected to the internet it's probably not your primary computer that you depend on anyway.
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