@craig1black I suggest finding an OLD copy of Red Hat from 1999. The same version(s) you would have found in big thick 'learn Linux - CD INCLUDED!' books of the era. That's how I got started!

@mystica555 I think my worry is while it'll definitely work fine, I guess there is no hope in have a browser that can connect to TLS?

@craig1black Damn Small Linux?

@adventureoflink I've heard of this distro. I think it may be the best out of the box experience without having to do too much.

@craig1black

@craig1black I’ve also been wondering this. Trying to get older Linux distros working on retro hardware is a challenge… but once I get that working, Synergy time!

@craig1black The binaries are pretty much the same. It boils down to do you like to use rpm or aptitude for your package manager. While I was a fan of Red Hat back in the day (rpm), apt is much cleaner when you start uninstalling stuff. So now I’m a huge Debian / Ubuntu fan.

@craig1black I think your best bet would be #PuppyLinux or #antiX . They both have requirements that are in the megabytes range. I have run them on old Pentiums but not a 486 as I don't currently have one of those. I'm VERY curious as to what your ultimate intention is here. 🤔😁

@craig1black Try WindowMaker which is like NextStep GUI.

@craig1black if you find it, it's probably called "UnicornOS"

@craig1black Puppy Linux would be one.

@craig1black I've used Tiny Core Linux in this scenario -

@craig1black You’ll want a 32bit distro with LXDE/LXQT. Lubuntu, Linux Lite, Xubuntu, Bodhi, antiX (they are not fond of systemd, Puppy Linux, Tiny Core? I’m familiar with the Debian based ones. Linux Lite follows LTS so it’s got good long term support. 🍻

@craig1black Are you looking for a modern Linux? Even the ones built for older computers n usually need more RAM than you typically have on a 486. Damn Small Linux (DSL) maybe an option, but last updated in 2012 I believe. On my 486DX4 100 with 20 MB of RAM I'm running Debian Slink from 1999.

@craig1black As it happens, I watched a video today where the DSL (Damn Small Linux) distro was being used on a trash-picked 486. Might be worth a look.

@craig1black I'm really not up to date on the modern Linux Distros and their hardware compatibility. But, I can tell you that I used to run Caldera OpenLinux V1.2 on a 486 machine. I even added PPPoE support.

@craig1black

@craig1black That's a really tall order it's certainly not a distro that's modern. You might be able to do Gentoo as it compiles everything and you can set universal build flags, but you would be better off with just a really old install disc. I can rip my really old Red Hat discs.

@craig1black I'd say give Slackware a try? It was the first distro I tried on my first 486 and it looks like it still supports 486s:

@craig1black OG Slackware was solid on 486 in '93. Guess you could call it my gateway drug.