Linux 7.2 has landed, dragging x86 timing clean out of the nineties by making the Time Stamp Counter mandatory.
I wrote up a quick article on why ditching those ancient legacy fallbacks is good housekeeping, plus a few other bits like cache-aware scheduling and memory tweaks worth noting.
Is anyone still using legacy hardware? If so, what do you use it for?
The problem is not software but hardware. The Compaq CQ510-SD is a nice compact design with round edges and small enough to fit in most any bag. Finding the same in a x64 system seems impossible. Hard edges, larger screens, flimsy chassis, or unuseable keyboards.
Well if you still like your hardware, and want continued, updated, software support, one of the BSD’s still likely to get you there for a it longer. NetBSD likely being the one that drops it last.
But at some point, as long as you able to do your work and copy data back and forth, does it matter
FreeDOS will always support x86, lol.
At least you not running something with an old big edian PowerPC machine. Support for those suck!
To my knowledge the CPU is soldered to the mainboard, but I haven’t looked inside it for a while now. Mine is running an Intel Atom N455; single core, two threads.
I’ll probably swap to a BSD for it when support ends.