Comment on Linux kernel maintainers are following through on removing Intel 486 support

cecilkorik@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

• Powderhorn@beehaw.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I get that, but how many people are still running a 486 without a bespoke use case in 2026? The older kernels still work, and no software targeting the 486 architecture is relying on the latest Linux kernel.

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  • cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    As long as the PC isn’t being connected to the internet, there’s no reason you can’t just keep running an old kernel.

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    • Powderhorn@beehaw.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Even if it is connected, you can keep running an old kernel.

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      • djsaskdja@reddthat.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        You can, but it’s a bad idea. Pretty major security risk.

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• spit_evil_olive_tips@beehaw.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  hopefully someone forks off a decent kernel

  uhhh…do you have any idea how much effort would be involved in maintaining a fork of the Linux kernel, just to preserve 486 support?

  this feels like a valuable door to keep open

  it’s not.

  it’s a vanishingly small install base, because of how slow and limited those chips are. the 486 had a whopping 1.2 million transistors. compare that to the big list on this wikipedia page. a few that stand out:

  • Playstation 2 (2003) had 53 million
  • Intel Core 2 Duo (2008) had 230 million
  • Apple A7 (2013) used in the iPhone 5S and iPad Air had 1 billion

  transistor count isn’t an exact proxy for performance, but with those orders of magnitude it puts into perspective just how underpowered that little 486 is going to be, for anything you might try to do with it in 2026.

  an original, first-generation Raspberry Pi will absolutely run circles around a 486. same with going to ebay or a local pawn shop / computer refurbisher and buying the absolute oldest/cheapest used laptop you can find.

  for people who already have 486s and really want to keep them going, the current Debian release still supports 486, and it’s supported until 2028 - meaning you have 2 more years of continuing to receive security updates and theoretically being safe to connect it to the internet.

  and even after that, FreeBSD has “tier 2” support for 386 and higher, and NetBSD supports it as “tier 1”

  and of course, nothing stops anyone from running an old kernel on their old hardware.

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  • JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I would really want to know what kind of a use-case results in using a 386 or 486 computer in 2026 in such a manner that not being able to install the latest kernel updates would be in any way be an actual issue.

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    • Powderhorn@beehaw.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Anything you still need a 486 for outside of hardware edge cases is handled far better and faster by a Pi Zero W. Thing is, they won’t be running Linux in that case, given vendor lock-in.

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      • DdCno1@beehaw.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Sometimes, the issue is certification, e.g. for aerospace and medical applications - although these systems tend to run on decades-old software anyway (since changes to the software also need to be certified, which rarely happens), so it’s not like this has an actual impact.

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  • SteevyT@beehaw.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    For reference, that means the 486 has maybe as many transistors as the board that runs my 11-year-old 3D printer firmware, and that was considered something between the “absolute bare minimum” and “honestly kinda underpowered” at the time I bought it. The only thing that board does is run some loops that send basic signals to some stepper motor drivers, and some basic-ass “bang-bang” style heat control. The actual heavy lifting of organizing and sending the position controls line by line is done by a Raspberry Pi.

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  • eleitl@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Even i386 felt pretty speedy when compared to 8 MHz 68k.

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    • pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Yes. It was speedy enough to merit a “Turbo” button to slow it down to a reasonable speed!

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