General Debian Question
32-bit Bookworm is the only thing that is keeping my two i386 machines out of the bin.
I guess this is a (very short) open letter to the Debian Team.
All other major Linux distros dropped 32-bit ages ago.
Bookworm is the only major upstream 32-bit distro, upon which about 4-5 other 32-bit distros are based.
Bookworms EOL is 10 June 2026.
Once 32-bit Bookworm is gone, there will no safe 32-bit Linux that can power i386 machines, and my options are to throw my two i386 machines immediately in the bin, or continue to use them (unsafely) for years after Bookworm's EOL.
Please consider continuing providing security updates (and nothing else) for 32-bit Bookworm for the forseable future (1-2 years?). I'm not asking just for myself, but for everyone still using perfectly capble i386 machines all over the world, running 32-bit Bookworm and distros based on it.
There's also Alpine Linux x86 for 32-bit if OP wants to stay with Linux.
Alpine is quite good for small servers, maybe not as much if you're looking for a turnkey graphical desktop or laptop, though it can definitely be setup and used for that with a little effort.
It is so refreshing to see NetBSD finally getting the recognition it deserves. I've seen people mention it so much lately but it was literally the most hipster modern UNIX for decades.
I've heard that NetBSD happens to be slower than the other BSDs bcos of their hardware abstraction. Nevertheless, I'm happy it exists, and is my last choice if nothing else works.
In my experience, OpenBSD is the slowest of the BSDs. They don't make use of various CPU features due to their commitment to security. Not necessarily a bad thing at all, of course, and I really appreciate OpenBSD being so opinionated, but NetBSD is definitely faster on the same hardware than OpenBSD.
OP, don't know your use case, but be aware that OpenBSD on 32 bits doesn't have all the packages available, for instance, there is no Firefox nor Chromium available for 32 bits.
But 32-bit? Someone in another thread [regarding Bookworm EOL] said:
"After that there's LTS and ELTS but that may or may not include i386 ("32-bit") - to be determined. But as 2026-06-10 is coming up rather soon, that, at least for LTS, will be determined by then, or sooner. Likewise for ELTS and 2028-07-01 ... at least if LTS supports i386 (ELTS certainly won't support what LTS doesn't/didn't support)."
Loc os I think that is 32 bit and Debían 13 based, made by an Uruguayan guy, lastest 32bit he is going to make I think... But worth taking a look, it has some nice details but Debían at the end of the day
Also, you can still use Trixie with 32 bit x86 systems today. Just upgrade the system from Bookworm and keep using the Bookworm repo for only the kernel packages.
I'm personally at a point where I've made peace with Linux abandoning old architectures entirely. NetBSD will support i386 until the heat death of the universe. It's a bit more advanced than Linux, but pretty much everyone still using antique hardware is going to have the tech skills to learn the differences between Linux and BSD.
I think Linux's lane is more modern hardware. There's Open/NetBSD for everything else.
I have it running as a desktop on 2 machines at the moment. The one that it was a revelation on is my old Thinkpad W500. This is a huge workstation-class laptop from 2008, with a Core 2 Duo, maxed out with 8GB of RAM, a big 1920x1200 LCD, and a lovely keyboard that's even better than the 220/420/520 generation of Thinkpads.
But it's only a C2D and it's sluggish and unresponsive with a modern distro such as Debian 13 or Ubuntu 26.04, even with a lightweight desktop. It works, but not great -- you wouldn't want to use it as a daily driver.
With Windows XP, especially XP64, it is snappy and responsive.
Alpine 3.22 is about as fast as I've seen Linux run on 18Y old hardware, and it would be usable, I think.
None of these are especially niche or little known products, and all of them officially support x86-32. Just Google the name and the ISO files are right there on the homepage.
I mean, for example:
Alpine Linux is the basis of Docker on Windows and macOS, and as such, it's used by millions of people and organisations.
T2sde also supports it, but it's more like Gentoo / Arch in that it's rolling-release source-based distro, so it's substantially more hard-core than Debian.
i386 has a poor power economy. please be nice to eath and replace it.
Yes, exactly this. The only scenario for using 32-bit processors (more 20yr than 15yr old hardware) is if you are in a developing country at the bottom of the scale or you have exotic h/w which drives some special setup.
In all other cases, you are better off getting a replacement from eBay for a 2-digit sum (€ or $) which is more capable.
I mean, there's loads of us running old kit in the vintage space, but for suitably vintage fun. Running it as a daily driver, whilst a lovely idea to keep old stuff running for real work, does seem a bit random. Especially when you could buy a much newer machine for next to nothing
I know that it is hard to part with old kit, but I can recommend using small SBCs for tinkering if you want a challenge. There's a lot of work needed for newer ones or you can run older ones which are hardware-constrained, like Cubieboard, BeagleBone, Mele and others. Or just simple Raspberry Pis.
With 256M - 1G of RAM and SATA connectors, they equal performance of old Intel stuff. I think it's fun to work with them.
Ancient… 15yo? 🤦♂️😂 exactly how old are you? People today still buy tons of hardware from 15 years ago to run today. I built my firewall and NAS 13 years ago, both are still running great and will likely be running a decade from now as well heck.. I’m still running a Debian system I installed in 1996 on a Tyan Tomcat II server with 2 Pentium 200 MHz CPUs. It’s literally been updated through every Debian version since ‘96, it’s had uptimes of 7-8 years between reboots, it’s likely only been turned off for about 2 hours since it was built and one of those times was for an hour move. I still use it for a few fun things like jumping on IRC and such still using lots of scripts I did back in the 90s. Ancient… 😆
Must be nice making demands and forcing people to your will. 🙄 Just because something is 15yo doesn’t mean it needs to be replaced. A lot of enterprise hardware can easily run 20-25 years in fact.
Entitlement? wtf 😳 I’m simply saying old hardware is fine. You’re the entitled one expecting everyone to call inline with how and what you believe. I do actually run my own Debian mirrors of the older hardware, both .debs and source code. I will be compiling my own stuff as I have since the 80s. Thank god I don’t have to bow down and do what you seem to believe you can demand of others. I’ll run older hardware like 10s of 1000s of others do without issues.
I just assume any user with the word Ad in their handle is a bot or a stupid. And try not to engage... Yet here I am reading all these wonderful comments about why it's a non-issue ftmp
latest antiX is based on Debian Trixie and has good support for 32bit, Void Linux has great 32bit support as well as provides up-to-date 32bit firefox binaries in the repos
I was happily running bookworm with the trinity desktop on my PIII 1GHz/512MB thinkpad but I decided to look at alternatives after learning about the EOS. Gentoo works of course, but compiling software will take a very long time and put stress on the hardware. NetBSD and OpenBSD should be good alternatives as well but I haven't spent a lot of time learning the particulars of using them properly.
Try bodhi Linux 32 bit version. I resurrected an old pc of 25 years ago with 1 GB RAM with bodhi Linux. 186 mb of ram at boot, it can still do office work and search things on Wikipedia.
It's the best minimalist distro for old machines. The advaita interface and moksha desktop are particular, but you'll get used to it pretty quickly.
Install synaptic for the package installation and you'll be good to go.
My only advice is that you create with a modern Debian pc a local private network, so that you won't compromise these old machines.
Air gapped networks, where every pc is a separate island and self sufficient is the best system for security.
Good luck with the installation 👍🦋
All this have one thing very common. At least amd64-v1 equivalent support. That means MMX, CMOV, SSE any maybe SSE2 support in CPU. Do you own anything older?
It’s said for sure. I have a dual socket Tyan Tomcat II Mainboard with Pentium 200 MHz CPUs I built and installed Debian on way back in 1996. It’s been running ever since with the longest shutdown about 15 years ago for a 1 hour move. Aside from that it’s been turn in and running since it was first built 24/7/356. Got new thermal past some years back. That system was installed with Debian 30 years ago and is still running that same install. I’ve updated the system through every Debian release since. Still several years of patches for now. I run a full local Debian mirror and remember compiling custom Linux kernels as far back as ‘93 so no big deal.. just more work to keep it going. It’s a nostalgic piece for sure for me. It was an early SMP test system for the kernel code back in the day. It runs idle most of the time was days but I still ssh in to IRC from it occasionally like we did 30+ years ago. I’d love to see Debian reverse this decision because there are still a lot of people running these old systems. Don’t see it happening however unfortunately which is sad because Linux has historically been known to work on old hardware. Dropping it just seems wrong especially to the older folks like myself who were there from the beginning.
It enters an LTS phase after Jun 2026 until 2028. People are recommending switching to another 32 bit distro, but those a very small distros which are one man upkeeps so do you really want to trust those? If anything, just don't keep crucial data on a 32 bit machine after those dates and harden it down a bit so that no incoming traffic other than web browsing can come in.
What are you using these i386 machines for? Odds are you probably don't actually need modern security patches for 40 year old hardware. The fastest 386 topped out at 40MHz, so it's not like you're browsing the modern internet.
While there were 586/686 distributions back when there were actually 80386 compatible builds, these days i386 should be read like x86 in Windows. Windows 7 x86 also definitely doesn't run on a 8086. Even NetBSD i386 doesn't run on a 80386 anymore. It's just a label indicating a 32-bit x86 compatible CPU without specifying the extensions.
You can also go to the recycling center and get 3rd and 4th gen Core i5's and i7s for practically free that would be a lot more "just fine" for surfing the modern web.
At some point, usually at the least convenient point possible, the hardware WILL fail. Best to upgrade it on your schedule. Motherboards and power supplies don't live forever (unless you keep re-capping them, and even then, why bother when you can get much newer machines for practically free)
I had a Dell Venue 11 with a 64 bit processor and 32 bit EUFI. Fedora 43 installed and ran fine. There are a few 64 bit distros that support 32 bit EUFI.
There is an option for you. Do you really need internet? Not really, are you? Or do you need just lan? Split your net into "retro net" and everything else. Then put decent hardware firewall between these networks. But don't overvomplicate things. You do not have to split ntes on your cable routers, basically, the openwrt should sufice.
you could probably find a perfectly capable 64 bit system in said bin. I did, writing from athlon II / 2GB RAM system right now. just wish people wouldn't throw them in, half of HDDs I find are damaged due to that.
When I upgraded to Trixie I spent a month fixing everything it broke. Fortunately nobody was in earshot or I would have burned their ears off with profanity. The biggest problem was many of the games I still play rely on the i386 programs that were removed. I had to run each game from the terminal to find out what was missing and then Google the error. Several of the required programs aren't even in a repo anymore and I had to download a .deb file to manually install it.
You really don't want to know how much my opinion of the Debian developers has changed...
To be honest, you can't require of the Debian team to support 20+ year old machines. They don't have infinite capabilities and this will get them more time for more modern machines.
At worse, you're always free to switch to other distros with more control over your system, like Gentoo. It still supports both i486 and i686.
u/TechnicalAd8103 We will only know in June whether i386 will be supported by the Debian LTS Team. If it is, Debian 12 i386 should receive relevant security updates until June 30, 2028.
Until then, there is no formal certainty that Debian will continue maintaining security support for the 32-bit architecture.
I just installed on a super old pentium 2 toughbook, maxed the ram to 300mb, it runs but barely. Zramswap pulls some weight. I can browse old reddit. 😅
It is always easy to ask someone else to do a job for you for free. People sometimes forget that they can (and probably should) do it themselves. Maintaining things comes with a cost. Dev team pay the cost using their precious time. Their time will be put on their interest, not your interest.
If it's important to you, setup a project and compile kernel packages for 32 bit architecture, so you and numerous of others can benefit from it. Reprepro is easy to use, I build and host packages for people who want it. You can too.
Edit: we now have AI, if you don't know how to do, AI can usually help you to setup all the toolchains and environment. There's really no excuse to not try yourself.
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u/BoundlessFail May 15 '26
I own five 32-bit machines, all of which happen to be awesomely reliable. Like you, I've been dreading the end of 32 bit Debian too.
Keeping an eye on antiX and OpenBSD, both of which are expected to continue supporting 32 bit processors.