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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Are older, but Linux compatible computers capable of running the newest kernel/version of various distros? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Guys I truly don't mean to spam the community but these are legit questions. Yesterday I posted about linux compatibility and computers and every single person gave me knowledge to use and you're all awesome.

Now my question is, I will undoubtedly be purchasing an older machine, would an older but good running machine still be able to install the latest kernels or versions of distros or are you limited to older versions only, based on the era of your laptop or is it really about the hardware you have? I know ram, disk space, basic stuff like that matters with distros, but I know that will not be a problem. I guess I'm thinking beyond that like processors. are older processors or anything else hold certain machines from being compatible with the newest and greatest kernels? Thanks!

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[–] AlmightySnoo 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

As others have stated, as long as it's an x86-64 CPU everything should work out-of-the-box unless you have some very weird hardware. If that's not the case and you have a 32 bits CPU or some other weirdness, the kernel is still to this day very configurable and you can build your own modern kernel by disabling features that are not supported by your CPU. You're probably going to need to build your packages, and not just the kernel, from source, and Gentoo is just perfect for that. The build scripts usually automatically detect your CPU features but you can also use the -march=native compilation flag to let your compiler produce binaries with the "best" instruction set supported by your CPU.

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