Oldest PC you are running Ubuntu or Linux on?

[sports fan Matt]

What is the oldest PC you are running Ubuntu or Linux on currently? Mine is a HP DV 4000 from 2005.

[monkeybrain20122]

Some old Inspiron from around 2003. Put Ubuntu 10.04 on it, then 10.10, then some lubuntu 11.xx or something and finally lubuntu 12.04. The graphic card eventually died a year and half ago. There were some techniques to make it work for 10.10. It had a Nvidia card, one of those that nouveau didn't work and Nvidia 196 (?) was not available in 10.10 so had to downgrade xorg to install the driver from 10.04. That was the first major Ubuntu project I undertook. :) The legacy driver came back later. It is now taken apart and lying dead somewhere in my place. :)

Performance was not great but Ok, at least it didn't freeze like XP and could watch DVD and streaming on Youtube up to 480p with mplayer instead of flash. It was a crappy machine by today's standard but had very high screen resolution (1920x1080) Not sure what the point was because it couldn't handle hd movies with any OS anyway (it actually came with Win2000 or something, someone, perhaps me, later installed XP on it before Ubuntu)

Well not really "currently" running. But it was the oldest machine I ever installed *buntu on.

[vq1]

HP elitebook 2730p - Ubuntu 14.04
I got it in either 2007 or 2008.

Probably put alil too much into it. New hard drive and battery.

[Old_Grey_Wolf]

Some old Inspiron from around 2003...

I have a Dell Inspiron 5100 laptop from 2003. I don't use it though. I upgraded it to 1 GB of RAM and a 50 GB HDD over the years. With the single core processor it doesn't handle video even with Lubuntu 12.04. It also weighs 7 pounds. :)

The oldest computer I actually use is a Compaq from 2008. It has a dual core, dual threaded processor with 4 GB of RAM and a 500GB HDD. I am thinking of getting a HDMI card for it and use it as a multimedia server. I'm not sure it is worth spending the money on it though as it may not work much longer.

[ddesanti]

I have and my family still uses a Dell Latitude 620 Laptop running Ubuntu 12.04. Still works great.

[alan62]

My first computer, a Pentium 4 machine, is running Ubuntu 14.04 right now, it's as slow as a turtle but at least I don't suffer from viruses anymore. I use it for storage and backup. (has 2 TB of storage)

[portalhavoc]

The oldest computer that I ran Ubuntu on was a HP Compaq computer from 2005. It had a Pentium 4 processor in it. (Although it had a Celeron D sticker on it.) And it had 2 GB of RAM and a 40 GB Samsung hard drive. It originally ran Windows XP until it got a Trojan Dropper Virus in Late 2009 and it slowed the system down to the point where it was slower than a snail covered in molasses. :P

And later in it's life it turned into a Linux server for a while and then it got turned into a Linux desktop in Late 2011. And it stopped working in April 2012. When it became really slow and unresponsive. (That thing was the slowest computer I have ever used.) And one year later in March 2013. It got turned into a computer for my next door neighbors. When it finally died and it was sitting in my garage collecting dust until sometime last spring I took it apart and salvaged the hard drive and the memory and scrapped the rest.

[Doug S]

Intel VS440FX motherboard. 200Mhz CPU, 128 Mbytes ram, some old IDE disk drive (I have been through several, and they are getting harder to find). Ubuntu 14.04 Sever edition with LAMP. Bought August 31st 1996.
I use it for minimum requirements testing for Ubuntu Server Edition (it is actually below the minimum requirements). Samba and the web server work remarkably well.

[Welly Wu]

June 2013 Lenovo IdeaPad Y510P notebook PC with Crucial Ballistix Sport 16 GB DDR3L SO-DIMM RAM, Transcend M.2 42 mm NGFF SATA-III 6 GB/s 256.00 GB solid state disk, and Hitachi Travelstar 7K1000 2.5" 9.5 mm SATA-III 6 GB/s 1.0 TB 7,200 RPM 32 MB cache laptop hard disk drive. All of my PCs run the latest Ubuntu 14.04.x 64 bit LTS GNU/Linux for now. I plan to upgrade to the next major Ubuntu 64 bit LTS GNU/Linux on both PCs one at a time. Ubuntu works well with fairly modern PC hardware specifications.

[monkeybrain20122]

June 2013 Lenovo IdeaPad Y510P notebook PC with Crucial Ballistix Sport 16 GB DDR3L SO-DIMM RAM, Transcend M.2 42 mm NGFF SATA-III 6 GB/s 256.00 GB solid state disk, and Hitachi Travelstar 7K1000 2.5" 9.5 mm SATA-III 6 GB/s 1.0 TB 7,200 RPM 32 MB cache laptop hard disk drive. All of my PCs run the latest Ubuntu 14.04.x 64 bit LTS GNU/Linux for now. I plan to upgrade to the next major Ubuntu 64 bit LTS GNU/Linux on both PCs one at a time. Ubuntu works well with fairly modern PC hardware specifications.

THAT is your oldest computer???!!! My newest computer is older than that. :)

[Kpenguin]

I have a Dell Dimension running Lubuntu from 2004.

[lisati]

I have a slow machine with 64Mb RAM from the late 1990s with a broken installation of Ubuntu 6.06, haven't powered it up for a while. The oldest machine in regular use in our house is a Toshiba laptop from 2007-2008 or thereabouts.

[Welly Wu]

Well, I only have two PCs right now so my Lenovo IdeaPad Y510P is the oldest PC that I currently own. So, yeah.

[kurt18947]

Intel VS440FX motherboard. 200Mhz CPU, 128 Mbytes ram, some old IDE disk drive (I have been through several, and they are getting harder to find). Ubuntu 14.04 Sever edition with LAMP. Bought August 31st 1996.
I use it for minimum requirements testing for Ubuntu Server Edition (it is actually below the minimum requirements). Samba and the web server work remarkably well.

NOW yer talkin' :D. I have a rescued HP that was born with a 650 Mhz. Celeron processor, 64 meg. RAM and Windows ME. I don't know when it was born - late '90s I guess. Spent some quality time in Ebay and got an old PCI nvidia card, 512 MB. PC100 RAM and a PCI ethernet card. 'Refurbished' 80 GB. IDE hard drive from MicroCenter. I think I got around $30 in it. i installed Xubuntu 14.04 and use it as a torrent box for deserving distros.

[Mike_Walsh]

THAT is your oldest computer???!!! My newest computer is older than that. :)

+1!!^^^

My 'newest' is a Compaq Presario desktop from 2005... My oldest is a Dell Inspiron 1100 lappie from 2002. Originally single-core P4-gen Celeron (2.2 GHz, NetBurst architecture), now running an actual P4 (2.6 GHz).

Slow but steady, that's the best description. Runs Xubuntu 14.04.2 nicely.....after finding a 'fix' for the Intel graphics adapter that had been kicking around the forums since before I joined! Still runs well, though.

At the moment, I'm also trying out (via USB stick) a Puppy Linux distro called X-Slacko. It's the Slackware-based 'Slacko' 5.7.0, which is becoming something of a legend in Puppy-land.....and using the XFCE desktop on top, instead of the more usual JWM (Joe's Window Manager) desktop. It flies..!

I agree with Old Grey Wolf about the 5100; that & the 1100 were related. This, too, weighs over 7 pounds; built like a tank!


Regards,

Mike. :)

[linuxyogi]

The first PC I assembled was on 2003. It was a 1.7 Ghz Celeron. I had no knowledge of Linux back then. The next rig I assembled was on 2005. It was a Celeron too 2.13Ghz. I installed Fedora and ultimately Ubuntu on it. Both these are gone now. My present PC was assembled on 2007. AMD 64X2 5600+ Ram 2GB. Tha mainboard failed on 2010 so I replaced it and so is the Nvidia card.

[mips]

2005 HP nx6110 laptop, celeron m @1.87GHz, 1.5GB RAM, 40GB HDD, running Archbang at the moment. in daily use for browsing, streaming, movies & downloads. Stays on 24/7.

I use it more than my new i5 desktop.

[poorguy]

dell dimension b110 / 3.0 ghz p4 socket 478 / 800 mhz fsb / 512 mb cache / 2.0 gb ddr ram / 40 gb hdd / intel integrated graphics. / 2006 / ubuntu mate 14.04 lts.

the poorguy

[mips]

dell dimension b110 / 3.0 ghz p4 socket 478 / 800 mhz fsb / 512 mb cache / 2.0 gb ddr ram / 40 gb hdd / intel integrated graphics. / 2006 / ubuntu mate 14.04 lts.

the poorguy

I never get why people run such heavy things on such old hardware. With that amount of ram a openbox/pekwm/fluxbox (not to mention the tiling WMs) based distros with palemoon as a browser would scream. Different strokes for different folks and all that...

[poorguy]

I never get why people run such heavy things on such old hardware. With that amount of ram a openbox/pekwm/fluxbox (not to mention the tiling WMs) based distros with palemoon as a browser would scream. Different strokes for different folks and all that...

in this case it was just something to do and it was already on a usb drive. also it does scream. i install ubuntu mate on a lot of old xp boxes for people for free just to get them up and running again and introduce them to something other than windows.

may have to investigate all that you mentioned in your post and give it a try.

the poorguy

[tdmeskimo]

My oldest PC that I have is a Dell Vostro 200. The pc case is updated, but the hardware inside is all Dell Vostro 200, oh and a new video card. I run Lubuntu 14.04 and Xubuntu 14.04 and once in awhile win7. I believe the Dell Vostro 200 came out in 2007, and this is my oldest PC I have. When these desktop came out they were running XP 32 bit, then I upgraded it to win7 32 bit. Installing my Lubuntu and Xubuntu found out they run 64 bits, so that is mainly what I use, Xubutnu 14.04 64bit.

[MoebusNet]

The oldest PC I'm running Ubuntu on is a 2003 Dell Latitude D800 (first generation) notebook running Lubuntu 14.04. It has a 1.4Ghz Pentium-M, 2GB RAM, 120 Gb hdd, nVidia GTX-5200M video card w/ 64Mb VRAM. When Ubuntu 12.04 came out, I had to replace the original Nvidia GTX 4100 w/32Mb VRAM (if I'm remembering correctly) with the current video card because (at the time) neither Nvidia nor Nouveau were supporting the card in Linux anymore. I read that later 12.04 gained support for that card, but too late for me.

If what I understand about the Pentium-M is true, it is basically a Pentium 3 with pipeline improvements. Intel manufactured it with a bug that even though the CPU is PAE capable, it does not advertise that fact and won't boot from an ordinary PAE 32-bit kernel. Lubuntu 14.04 has a forcepae boot option in its 32-bit kernel that allows Pentium-Ms to boot; otherwise there are fakepae procedures to follow that I've never used.

My D800 is still chugging along. Although slow to boot (about 1-2 minutes) it still works well for web browsing, email, document generation in Libre Office, etc. Video plays without stuttering from DVD, but web video is limited by the 802.11abg wireless mini-pci card's throughput. If I can save the video to hard drive then play it, all is well. It is heavy, but fulfills its role as my backup for my primary notebook.

[kurt18947]

in this case it was just something to do and it was already on a usb drive. also it does scream. i install ubuntu mate on a lot of old xp boxes for people for free just to get them up and running again and introduce them to something other than windows.

may have to investigate all that you mentioned in your post and give it a try.

the poorguy

If you're installing for other people who are used to Windows XP, I'm not sure mate would be my first choice. It's a very nice distro but IMO it's not very like XP's UI. XFCE with some tweaks or Mint (cinnamon) would be less of a shock IMO. Any machine that ran XP well will run Xubuntu or Linux mint just as well. In both cases I find 32 bit versions use less RAM than the 64 bit versions.

[mörgæs]

If what I understand about the Pentium-M is true, it is basically a Pentium 3 with pipeline improvements. Intel manufactured it with a bug that even though the CPU is PAE capable, it does not advertise that fact and won't boot from an ordinary PAE 32-bit kernel. Lubuntu 14.04 has a forcepae boot option in its 32-bit kernel that allows Pentium-Ms to boot; otherwise there are fakepae procedures to follow that I've never used.

It's partly true. Pentium M comes in a Banias and a Dothan family, the latter does not need forcepae. More here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PAE

[poorguy]

If you're installing for other people who are used to Windows XP, I'm not sure mate would be my first choice. It's a very nice distro but IMO it's not very like XP's UI. XFCE with some tweaks or Mint (cinnamon) would be less of a shock IMO. Any machine that ran XP well will run Xubuntu or Linux mint just as well. In both cases I find 32 bit versions use less RAM than the 64 bit versions.

most of these boxes are p4 socket 478 and 32 bit is the only thing that will run on them. also i have had linux mint 17.1 cinnamon not run on boxes with integrated graphics. yeah i agree that linux mint might be easier to use but my 1st linux flight was debian wheezy 7.0 and then ubuntu 14.04 lts and i never had any problem navigating through it. most of these people want to get away from windows and thats why some never upgraded to a secure OS. they seem to navigate it very well.

the poorguy

[Pat_Johnson]

I just got my dad's old HP Pavilion A6000y box, which had minimum build (Celeron 360, 168GB drive) from mid 2007 - installed 2 1GB sticks of RAM and a 250GB WD drive. CPU is a Celeron 360, but I have a Pentium D 925 to stick in there before I start tracking audio - Ubuntu Studio with only the audio install. Works so far, but want to do the CPU change before I try anything more. Fingers crossed.

[poorguy]

make sure to check what bios version that you have, that it will support a pentium d 925. nothing is worse than swapping a processor and to power up again and it will not post. some prebuilt boxes are not able to get bios upgrades and if not careful you can rendor a working box into a non working box. good luck.

[shantiq]

my only PC is a Packard-Bell from 2005 [AMD 64]; but i now boot it from an external SSD placed in an akasa caddy and it runs 14.04 on LXDE; a combination that really does not make me feel behind the times; an nvidia card was added 3 years ago to run 1080p media ... never feel i am missing out on more recent developments that way ...
... i also have a 2005 MacBook dual booting 14.04 but almost never use it ... it is my daughter's really

[justen_m]

Oldest is an Intel Atom 1.6GHz netbook, 1GB RAM, 120GBHDD, from late 2008. Slow but useable. My server, with an Intel Xeon 5150 2.67GHz, 4GB RAM, big RAID, from early 2009 is respectably quick. Both are 32-bit 14.04.2. I doubt I'll ever upgrade either. Both came with XP and were dual boot until I nuked XP a year or two ago.

[RichardET]

A 2005/6 era Compaq:

Copyright (c) 1992-2014 The FreeBSD Project.
Copyright (c) 1979, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994
The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
FreeBSD is a registered trademark of The FreeBSD Foundation.
FreeBSD 10.1-RELEASE-p16 #0: Tue Jul 28 12:04:19 UTC 2015
root@amd64-builder.daemonology.net:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC amd64
FreeBSD clang version 3.4.1 (tags/RELEASE_34/dot1-final 208032) 20140512
VT: running with driver "vga".
CPU: AMD Sempron(tm) Processor 3400+ (1989.85-MHz K8-class CPU)
Origin = "AuthenticAMD" Id = 0x20ff2 Family = 0xf Model = 0x2f Stepping = 2
Features=0x78bfbff<FPU,VME,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,CX8,APIC,SEP,MTRR,P GE,MCA,CMOV,PAT,PSE36,CLFLUSH,MMX,FXSR,SSE,SSE2>
Features2=0x1<SSE3>
AMD Features=0xe2500800<SYSCALL,NX,MMX+,FFXSR,LM,3DNow!+,3DNow!>
AMD Features2=0x1<LAHF>
real memory = 3489660928 (3328 MB)
avail memory = 3284824064 (3132 MB)

[Kale_Freemon]

I've got an older Dell desktop PC from 2003 that originally ran Windows XP. My grandfather gave it to me. It is currently up in my closet right now because I'm getting ready to move. But I've got it set up as a file and print server with Lubuntu 14.04. Runs just fine like that.