this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2026
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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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there are a couple youtube channels I recently discovered that do just that. take REALLY old computers and parts and try to make them semi-viable for modern computing. and I'm talking stuff that is easily nearly 30+ years old.
BoomerTec and Action Retro. BoomerTec I really like as he'll just pick up random old PCs and explain all the parts inside and even give a history on them. His vids are like really awesome relaxing sunday morning watches. He even finds FOSS stuff that will still work on really old pcs. because of his channel I even discovered forks of firefox that are still actively developed for 32bit or community builds of Windows XP that are still updated today. For example his recent vid he bought a PC from 1998 off Ebay and got Firefox, Photoshop, and OpenOffice working on it. even games.
Action Retro pretty much does the same thing but with a focus on Linux. He's done videos of taking like old Compaqs from the 90s and getting linux running on them. Really impressive stuff.
Veronica Explains is also good for this. Her video of taking old chromebooks and getting linux working on them is very detailed and thorough. Extremely easy to follow even for first timers. Also what I like about Veronica Explains is her videos remind me of old TechTV Screen Savers and Call for Help.
Leaving the really ancient machines aside - for most tasks you really don't need the newest tech. At home i am running a Core2Quad system with 8 GB DDR2 RAM and its absolutely fine under Linux or other free OSes. Webbrowsing even with a ton of tabs open is no problem, many games from the repositories are still running absolutely fine and for office stuff this system would still be overkill. Hell, would i switch out the old Nvidia GPU for something remotely newer even current versions of Blender would just work.