Comments on: Top 10 32-Bit Linux Distributions in 2024 [Compared]

By: Ignacio

Ignacio — Mon, 02 Jan 2023 19:03:15 +0000

My primary laptop is a venerable IBM Thinkpad and I’ve tried almost all distros you mention here and some more. I can assure you probably the best of all with a difference is LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) currently at version 5, which you have forgot to list. Imperceptible differences against Linux Mint 21 (based on Ubuntu 22.04), and runs on 32-bit hardware.

By: Piriponzolo

Piriponzolo — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 21:21:02 +0000

Hi! Puppy Linux has not dropped the support for the 32 bit. See S15Pup32 22.12,it is based on Slackware 15.

By: Old Tiger

Old Tiger — Sun, 11 Dec 2022 19:16:48 +0000

In reply to Kairuku Waitaki.

@Kairuku Waitaki I don’t know if you’ll see my post but I have a few systems on my LAN, both 32bit cpus in laptops and larger towers that are on Debian 11 Bullseye. They all work great. I may test out a few more distros… But let hope the distro’s listed here in this article stays true to the real Linux mindset of inclusion of old hardware and most of all USER’s of Linux.. I still can’t belive that these distros have Dev’s that thought it OK to drop 32bit support of the distro AND users of there distros as well… Just wild…

By: Old Tiger

Old Tiger — Sun, 11 Dec 2022 19:10:03 +0000

First, THANK YOU for posting the article. Two comments for you the author.

1) I’ve been using Linux since it came out and yes.. I am an old guy, still working in Information Services as well.
I’ve used Debian when it was first created and I’m partial to that.. And I’ll tell you Debian 11 Bullseye is GREAT on 32bit cpu’s. Even with ONE GB of memory, it runs well. MATE is great for a desktop manager.. or use LXDE. Or even lightweight older Window Manager like Fluxbox, or IceWM.

2) I can you that those distro’s that dropped support for 32bit cpu’s are 100% embracing closed source mentality. I have NO issues with support the latest and greatest hardware, but Linux WOULD NEVER be in existence if people said “oh.. that hardware is too old, I’m not going to support THAT..”. If that is what these young dev’s mindsets are thinking, going forward.. We’ll see a further decline in Linux in the future… Sorry to say that but when you start down that closed source mindset and exclude USER’ from Linux… Going down that dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny… Even though I spinned that from Star Wars (Yoda) it’s sadly true. Happy Holidays to you and all.. Remember what I said above going into the New Year..PLEASE.

By: Arindam

Arindam — Sat, 30 Jul 2022 18:26:10 +0000

In reply to Kairuku Waitaki. Thanks.

By: Kairuku Waitaki

Kairuku Waitaki — Sat, 30 Jul 2022 15:49:43 +0000

I looked at this post because I’m just beginning the process of recycling several very old 32-bit laptops I inherited, and I wanted to be sure I hadn’t overlooked any good candidates. I must say that you hit the nail on the head in identifying 32-bit distros for the average user. The only possible addition I can think of is Crunchbang++ (crunchbangplusplus.org/), which is based on Debian 11 Bullseye, while BunsenLabs is still based on Debian 10 Buster. For those looking for a fork of the original #! [Crunchbang], Crunchbang++ seems to be more similar to #! than BunsenLabs currently is. I noticed two typos (probably caused by your spell-checker): the comments on Void mention “run unit,” which presumably was meant to be runit, and on BunsenLabs there are two mentions of tin2, which should be tint2.

By: Arindam

Arindam — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 06:55:06 +0000

In reply to William B Peckham. Thanks. I will keep that in mind for future reviews. However, the top list in this post is sorted based on ease of installation and use from an average user standpoint (from high to low). Overall, we try to keep easy-to-use ones (from an average user perspective) at the top and then towards the bottom. That’s the main idea of the list. That said, we will add the basis of the order in the future.

By: William B Peckham

William B Peckham — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 15:33:29 +0000

You said “I will list the ten best Linux distros that still support 32-bit systems.”, but HOW? What did you measure, and how did you measure to order the distributions so you could pick the top ten? What makes them “top” over any other 32-bit Linux distribution?

How am I do put any value on your selection if you give us no information on the BASIS for your selection. Are these the top ten for speed at something, the top ten for speed at one particular kind of operation, or the top ten for collecting malware and rootkit infections?

Give us some basis to understand and value your selection!
Without that, your article is meaningless noise.