Ceci est une ancienne révision du document !
32-Bit
I would like to make a comment on one of the articles from FCM#111 regarding the news article and suggest some 32-Bit Ubuntu alternatives. The article was interesting but it did not mention any of the alternative operating systems that would be suitable on 32-bit computers.
I have tried several, including Peppermint—a very popular OS—but the best one I personally have found is antiX. This system is very different from Ubuntu and it operates very differently, but it is lightweight and very fast (there is an excellent and very responsive forum which I have used when I had questions). I have an “ancient” computer—a Toshiba Satellite 1905-S277—that I purchased in March 2002. It originally came with the first version of Windows-XP installed and has a Pentium 4 processor along with 512 MB of RAM.
Obviously nothing can perform miracles with this computer, yet, with antiX-16 installed, it does function and is usable (Peppermint 6 would not install to this computer.) I use it mostly to play Internet radio stations.
I also use antiX-16 on a ZaReason Teo netbook and this OS has brought this low-powered computer back to life.
I also own a couple of 32-bit Acer Extensa computers purchased as recently as 2008, which also have 32-bit processors. They are both in excellent physical condition and I wish to continue to use them.
This operating system is certainly worth investigating, at least in my opinion, by anyone who has an otherwise physically functional older computer. antiX has a couple of other “flavors” including a 64-bit installation.
I like it.
I think that Ubuntu's decision to abandon 32-bit support is unfortunate. Ditto for the other distributions that have chose the same route. After all, some years ago, one of most GNU/Linux distributions' selling points was that you could continue to use an older computer which would no longer support Windows. Some of our distributions seem to have lost sight of that advantage (which is, again in my opinion, a major one).
Lawrence H. Bulk