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Entry tags:
- antix,
- browsers,
- debian,
- floss,
- freedos,
- lightweight,
- linux,
- low resource,
- nano-x,
- older computers,
- os,
- portable,
- windows,
- xfdos
FLOSS for Low Resource Computers
Considering how hard it is to get computers (still waiting over a month) and computer parts, now is a great time to look into bringing new life to your old hardware.
While I often see information shared about how Linux brings new life to older computers, my personal experience ( http://www.distasis.com/cpp/slin.htm ) hasn't been as good as some of the glowing articles. When I investigate further, a lot of the successes have been for single purpose servers (typically command line with no desktop support) or single function usage like home theater systems. Many Linux distributions are aimed at the latest hardware and can be just as resource intensive as Windows systems. It's interesting to note that many of the low resource optimizations for Linux originated from the Android project not from the kernel project itself and they are slowly being integrated into the Linux kernel project. Some FLOSS development projects and companies like Google which produces Android don't even want to be bothered with 32 bit systems and want to concentrate on 64 bit only. It can be more efficient to run Linux or other Free operating systems on new minimal hardware like a Raspberry Pi than to try to get something working on an old computer. One can also find systems similar to the Raspberry Pi but supporting X86 so Windows CE and other Windows like software becomes an option. There's even an Android operating system port called Android-X86.
I've often seen Puppy Linux touted as a great system for older computers, but I could never get it to work with my hardware. Slackware is an interesting choice that can be lightweight, but the Lilo boot loader doesn't work for certain types of hard drives and one would need to find a way to independently get grub on those systems. TinyCore Linux is really interesting but it can require a lot of RAM to run properly. Debian has worked on many older systems and there are many great Debian variants. However, even Debian is removing some of their drivers for older hardware. Plus, they've updated to systemd. So, if you want a system you can maintain yourself with minimal dependencies where a package does one thing well per the Unix philosophy, a systemd based OS won't be the way to go.
Some Linux distributions still worth checking out for use with older systems are:
AntiX, a Debian based distribution without systemd
ToriOS, a Debian based distribution catering to older computers
NanoLinux, a TinyCore Linux distribution that uses Nano-X instead of X Windows
Grml, a Debian based distribution, command line, bootable rescue CD
I've also looked into OS options for older computers that were not Linux based. Both FreeBSD and FreeDOS can be more lightweight alternatives than Linux. However, both options typically have less hardware support than Linux. FreeDOS also tends to have more proprietary software and few active Open Source projects available for it. If you're interested in a very lightweight DOS alternative for old hardware, check out the XFDOS project. It offers several Open Source programs for DOS including a lightweight browser.
I've never had any luck with ReactOS. Again, hardware support is an issue. It can run some very complex Windows programs quite well, but it often fails on simple ones I commonly use. While I've recently seen posts that they want to hire development help, I've never found them responsive when I've volunteered to offer my programming skills. Wine seems to be able to run more Windows programs successfully than Reactos and Linux has better hardware support. So, a Linux system with Wine might be a good option for Windows users who want to switch. However, if switching to Linux, I'd personally rather rebuild my Open Source software for Linux rather than try to use it on Wine. I'd love to find some other viable options besides ReactOS. I do remember reading something on the ReactOS forum about a Wine based fork to ReactOS. Haven't been able to find any details though. Some DOS projects mentioned adding partial support for Windows programs using options like HX DOS Extender. However, they only seem to support Win32 console options. I've seen some suggestions of creating a FLOSS OS similar to a Win 3.1 system with a GUI/desktop built on top of a FreeDOS system, but have not been able to find any active projects. Without GUI support for DOS based Windows alternatives, a project like XFDOS using Nano-X seems the best way to go. Nano-X provides basic APIs somewhat compatible with Xlib and Win32 and there's enough support to build FLTK based applications. If anyone finds other viable options in this area, please let me know. I would love to add my programming skills to such a project.
If you have a Windows computer, you can keep running Windows and use FLOSS programs to improve functionality. I've upgraded Windows systems before, but the results are typically sluggish and eventually I end up having to put another operating system on to keep using the machine.
The one thing that seems consistent across platforms is that older versions of operating systems seem to run better on older hardware than newer ones. Developers continue to write software that is more bloated, more complicated and more dependent on other software. Many news sources do not recommend running older operating systems especially Windows. So using older operating systems to keep older hardware alive goes against average advice. If you don't have other options and need to run an older operating system on your hardware, two security concepts to look into are sandboxing and security by obscurity. On Linux systems, Linux containers are a good sandboxing option. You can also try to avoid running as root or admin whenever you access the Internet. You can even disconnect from the Internet completely for security purposes and use options like sneaker net ( http://www.distasis.com/cpp/snet.htm ) to update your systems when needed.
Here are some FLOSS recommendations for low resource or older computers. Some are specifically for Windows or Linux and some are cross-platform portable.
Cross-platform applications:
Web Browser - Netrider
https://sourceforge.net/projects/netrider/
Web Browser - D+
https:/sourceforge.net/projects/dplus-browser/
Web Browser - lynx
https://lynx.invisible-island.net/
Graphics editor - Lodepaint
https://sourceforge.net/projects/lodepaint/
Graphics editor - grafx2
http://grafx2.chez.com/
Command line graphics editor - GraphicsMagick
http://www.graphicsmagick.org/
Command line sound conversion/player - SoX
http://sox.sourceforge.net/
Music player - MilkyTracker
https://milkytracker.titandemo.org/
PDF viewer - MuPDF
https://mupdf.com/
Ebook reader - Bard
https://github.com/festvox/bard
I have a patched version that works better on Windows.
Windows emulator - BoxedWine
https://github.com/danoon2/Boxedwine
DOS Resources:
DOS distribution - XFDOS
https://sourceforge.net/projects/fltk-dos/
DOS emulator - DOSBox
https://www.dosbox.com/
Windows specific and Windows portable versions:
Web browser - Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition Legacy 52
https://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox-portable-legacy-52
Web browser - Chrome Portable
https://portableapps.com/node/60675
Java - Java Portable
https://sourceforge.net/projects/portableapps/files/Java%20Portable/
Install in CommonFiles subdirectory at the same level as where the portable browsers are installed. Java Portable version 8 works on XP and Vista. I've used jPortable_8_Update_66.paf.exe but later versions will probably work as well.
Web browsers - other options
http://rtfreesoft.blogspot.com/
Haven't tried them, but there are several ports of browsers to older hardware.
Web browser - RetroZilla
https://github.com/rn10950/RetroZilla
Web browser - Supermium
https://github.com/win32ss/supermium
IM - Miranda NG
https://github.com/miranda-ng/miranda-ng
Sandox - Sandboxie
https://github.com/sandboxie-plus/Sandboxie
https://www.sandboxie.com/GettingStarted
Firewall - Simplewall
https://github.com/henrypp/simplewall
Host-based Intrusion Detection System - ossec
https://github.com/ossec/ossec-hids
PDF viewer - SumatraPDF
https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/free-pdf-reader.html
Image editor - I.mage
http://www.memecode.com/image/
ISO access - WinCDEmu
https://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/wincdemu-portable
If you can't find a copy of WinXP Virtual CD Control Panel for accessing ISO files or it doesn't work on your system, you can try WinCDEmu.
CD and DVD creation - rktools
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17657
This isn't FLOSS, but it's very useful for creating CDs and DVDs from the command line.
GWBasic
https://github.com/microsoft/GW-BASIC
The original source code of Microsoft GW-BASIC from 1983 is available under a MIT license.
Linux/POSIX software:
Window manager - JWM
https://joewing.net/projects/jwm/
Terminal software - urxvt
http://software.schmorp.de/pkg/rxvt-unicode.html
If you have other alternatives (operating systems or FLOSS software) that work on older hardware that you'd like to recommend, please let me know ( http://www.distasis.com/connect.htm ). I would love to find some other options. I'm also actively looking for operating system projects that need (and actually want) volunteers to help port lightweight software to them. Would be interested in hearing how others are coping with keeping older hardware alive. Hope you'll share your own articles, blogs, projects with everyone.
While I often see information shared about how Linux brings new life to older computers, my personal experience ( http://www.distasis.com/cpp/slin.htm ) hasn't been as good as some of the glowing articles. When I investigate further, a lot of the successes have been for single purpose servers (typically command line with no desktop support) or single function usage like home theater systems. Many Linux distributions are aimed at the latest hardware and can be just as resource intensive as Windows systems. It's interesting to note that many of the low resource optimizations for Linux originated from the Android project not from the kernel project itself and they are slowly being integrated into the Linux kernel project. Some FLOSS development projects and companies like Google which produces Android don't even want to be bothered with 32 bit systems and want to concentrate on 64 bit only. It can be more efficient to run Linux or other Free operating systems on new minimal hardware like a Raspberry Pi than to try to get something working on an old computer. One can also find systems similar to the Raspberry Pi but supporting X86 so Windows CE and other Windows like software becomes an option. There's even an Android operating system port called Android-X86.
I've often seen Puppy Linux touted as a great system for older computers, but I could never get it to work with my hardware. Slackware is an interesting choice that can be lightweight, but the Lilo boot loader doesn't work for certain types of hard drives and one would need to find a way to independently get grub on those systems. TinyCore Linux is really interesting but it can require a lot of RAM to run properly. Debian has worked on many older systems and there are many great Debian variants. However, even Debian is removing some of their drivers for older hardware. Plus, they've updated to systemd. So, if you want a system you can maintain yourself with minimal dependencies where a package does one thing well per the Unix philosophy, a systemd based OS won't be the way to go.
Some Linux distributions still worth checking out for use with older systems are:
AntiX, a Debian based distribution without systemd
ToriOS, a Debian based distribution catering to older computers
NanoLinux, a TinyCore Linux distribution that uses Nano-X instead of X Windows
Grml, a Debian based distribution, command line, bootable rescue CD
I've also looked into OS options for older computers that were not Linux based. Both FreeBSD and FreeDOS can be more lightweight alternatives than Linux. However, both options typically have less hardware support than Linux. FreeDOS also tends to have more proprietary software and few active Open Source projects available for it. If you're interested in a very lightweight DOS alternative for old hardware, check out the XFDOS project. It offers several Open Source programs for DOS including a lightweight browser.
I've never had any luck with ReactOS. Again, hardware support is an issue. It can run some very complex Windows programs quite well, but it often fails on simple ones I commonly use. While I've recently seen posts that they want to hire development help, I've never found them responsive when I've volunteered to offer my programming skills. Wine seems to be able to run more Windows programs successfully than Reactos and Linux has better hardware support. So, a Linux system with Wine might be a good option for Windows users who want to switch. However, if switching to Linux, I'd personally rather rebuild my Open Source software for Linux rather than try to use it on Wine. I'd love to find some other viable options besides ReactOS. I do remember reading something on the ReactOS forum about a Wine based fork to ReactOS. Haven't been able to find any details though. Some DOS projects mentioned adding partial support for Windows programs using options like HX DOS Extender. However, they only seem to support Win32 console options. I've seen some suggestions of creating a FLOSS OS similar to a Win 3.1 system with a GUI/desktop built on top of a FreeDOS system, but have not been able to find any active projects. Without GUI support for DOS based Windows alternatives, a project like XFDOS using Nano-X seems the best way to go. Nano-X provides basic APIs somewhat compatible with Xlib and Win32 and there's enough support to build FLTK based applications. If anyone finds other viable options in this area, please let me know. I would love to add my programming skills to such a project.
If you have a Windows computer, you can keep running Windows and use FLOSS programs to improve functionality. I've upgraded Windows systems before, but the results are typically sluggish and eventually I end up having to put another operating system on to keep using the machine.
The one thing that seems consistent across platforms is that older versions of operating systems seem to run better on older hardware than newer ones. Developers continue to write software that is more bloated, more complicated and more dependent on other software. Many news sources do not recommend running older operating systems especially Windows. So using older operating systems to keep older hardware alive goes against average advice. If you don't have other options and need to run an older operating system on your hardware, two security concepts to look into are sandboxing and security by obscurity. On Linux systems, Linux containers are a good sandboxing option. You can also try to avoid running as root or admin whenever you access the Internet. You can even disconnect from the Internet completely for security purposes and use options like sneaker net ( http://www.distasis.com/cpp/snet.htm ) to update your systems when needed.
Here are some FLOSS recommendations for low resource or older computers. Some are specifically for Windows or Linux and some are cross-platform portable.
Cross-platform applications:
Web Browser - Netrider
https://sourceforge.net/projects/netrider/
Web Browser - D+
https:/sourceforge.net/projects/dplus-browser/
Web Browser - lynx
https://lynx.invisible-island.net/
Graphics editor - Lodepaint
https://sourceforge.net/projects/lodepaint/
Graphics editor - grafx2
http://grafx2.chez.com/
Command line graphics editor - GraphicsMagick
http://www.graphicsmagick.org/
Command line sound conversion/player - SoX
http://sox.sourceforge.net/
Music player - MilkyTracker
https://milkytracker.titandemo.org/
PDF viewer - MuPDF
https://mupdf.com/
Ebook reader - Bard
https://github.com/festvox/bard
I have a patched version that works better on Windows.
Windows emulator - BoxedWine
https://github.com/danoon2/Boxedwine
DOS Resources:
DOS distribution - XFDOS
https://sourceforge.net/projects/fltk-dos/
DOS emulator - DOSBox
https://www.dosbox.com/
Windows specific and Windows portable versions:
Web browser - Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition Legacy 52
https://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox-portable-legacy-52
Web browser - Chrome Portable
https://portableapps.com/node/60675
Java - Java Portable
https://sourceforge.net/projects/portableapps/files/Java%20Portable/
Install in CommonFiles subdirectory at the same level as where the portable browsers are installed. Java Portable version 8 works on XP and Vista. I've used jPortable_8_Update_66.paf.exe but later versions will probably work as well.
Web browsers - other options
http://rtfreesoft.blogspot.com/
Haven't tried them, but there are several ports of browsers to older hardware.
Web browser - RetroZilla
https://github.com/rn10950/RetroZilla
Web browser - Supermium
https://github.com/win32ss/supermium
IM - Miranda NG
https://github.com/miranda-ng/miranda-ng
Sandox - Sandboxie
https://github.com/sandboxie-plus/Sandboxie
https://www.sandboxie.com/GettingStarted
Firewall - Simplewall
https://github.com/henrypp/simplewall
Host-based Intrusion Detection System - ossec
https://github.com/ossec/ossec-hids
PDF viewer - SumatraPDF
https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/free-pdf-reader.html
Image editor - I.mage
http://www.memecode.com/image/
ISO access - WinCDEmu
https://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/wincdemu-portable
If you can't find a copy of WinXP Virtual CD Control Panel for accessing ISO files or it doesn't work on your system, you can try WinCDEmu.
CD and DVD creation - rktools
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17657
This isn't FLOSS, but it's very useful for creating CDs and DVDs from the command line.
GWBasic
https://github.com/microsoft/GW-BASIC
The original source code of Microsoft GW-BASIC from 1983 is available under a MIT license.
Linux/POSIX software:
Window manager - JWM
https://joewing.net/projects/jwm/
Terminal software - urxvt
http://software.schmorp.de/pkg/rxvt-unicode.html
If you have other alternatives (operating systems or FLOSS software) that work on older hardware that you'd like to recommend, please let me know ( http://www.distasis.com/connect.htm ). I would love to find some other options. I'm also actively looking for operating system projects that need (and actually want) volunteers to help port lightweight software to them. Would be interested in hearing how others are coping with keeping older hardware alive. Hope you'll share your own articles, blogs, projects with everyone.