Thinkpad T42

I was recently given a T42 by someone, I've had it rotting in my cabinet for a while now but recently I tried out Debian 12 with the base LXDE install. It didn't run too bad, but running any web browser besides maybe surf or a terminal application brings it to it's knees. I run i3WM and devuan on my x201, which I use for school and work, but I'm wanting to try something new out. Does anyone else run a T42 or similarly aged hardware consistently? Post your setups if so.(USER WAS WARNED FOR THIS POST, You should always elaborate on your opinions rather than just spilling the soykaf.)

>>73359 I use a T61, it works fine for light web sites (eg. lainchan, searx, wikipedia) but it doesnt work on any javascript heavy websites (eg. jewtube) For normal desktop use, Arch, alpine and FreeBSD work great with a light wm.

>>73359 Similar situation running Debian 12 on an X60. I can deal with slow internet browsing but the cpu being i386 has been a pain for me.

>>73366 >jewtube >some random garbage video host >napster but for millennial lamers >anyone can upload anything >1 billion users >surprised hence nothing but SHLT content is on >surprised that a corporation has autistic muppet tier moderation policies >DIS IS DA WORK OF DA JOOZ kys WLGGER your retardation is giving me aids

you see when you say "youtube", it's already an insult. adding jew to it just makes you seem autistic and low iq.

oh yes and in this case trying to fit in to your fellow retards

>>73366 >it works fine for light web sites (eg. lainchan, searx, wikipedia) but it doesnt work on any javascript heavy websites I see this as a feature. You should not use these sites in the first place. I'm looking to get a thinkpad like x60/t60 or something like that

>>73419 >cpu being i386 has been a pain for me. how so?

>>73359 >I was recently given a T42 by someone, Try NetBSD. It's more lightweight but software like Electron crap or modern web browsers obviously don't work better on it when compared to GNU/Linux. I suggest that you also look for lightweight alternatives to bloated apps. Examples: use i3 instead of LXDE (ps: OpenBox is no longer maintained, AFAIK), Lynx/w3m for browsing (or try using Lynx/sacc/gopherus for Gopher or Amfora for Gemini) and using irssi for IRC, etc. If you want to keep using GNU/Linux (perfectly okay), I suggest you try the musl version of Void Linux or Alpine Linux (they use a bit less RAM). There are 32-bit versions of Alpine Linux available (I can't remember if Void Linux has them). Also: https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Requirements There is also Gentoo and it also (optionally) supports musl but you need another machine that builds packages (using Portage + distcc) for your laptop. If this is not a problem, Gentoo would be even a better choice since you can disable features that you don't need and all packages would be tailored and optimized for you. You can even use -Os instead of -O2 compiler optimization if you want to. I don't know if this would heavily decrease the performance but you could enable it for some programs only (after you have tested that they work well with -Os optimization). I would be interested in knowing if -Os can actually increase the performance of some programs (not just lower RAM & disk space consumption). I wonder if more stuff can fit into CPU caches if you use -Os? There is an interesting web site that explores the CPU cache topic: https://igoro.com/archive/gallery-of-processor-cache-effects/ Another option would be to run FreeDOS on it. It even has a package manager called "FDIMPLES" (packages are simply zip archives with a specific folder structure and metadata text files). You can install packages from the installation media or you can install "FDNPKG" to be able to get them from Internet. Disclaimer: I have never used FreeDOS on real hardware but I have ran it in a VM. Also, I know that some old DOS programs were programmed to consume 100% of CPU (i don't know why) and I don't know how that works on a more "modern" CPU. >>73366 >For normal desktop use, Arch, The problem with Arch Linux is that it requires a 64-bit CPU. Also, they don't split packages and they enable all features on all packages (with only a few exceptions). This is bad for old computers, since it uses up more RAM and disk space. For semi-modern computers, this doesn't matter and Arch is great distro for those computers.

>>73443 Arch works fine performance-wise on the T7200 in my T61 (or, well, did a year ago when I last used it), havnt really noticed any difference between it and Alpine, Void, etc >>73422 >>73424 >>73425 2023 butthurt same user award

i have a t42 running windows xp. it runs really well except for the soykaf 40 gb ide hdd. i've even got a dell inspiron (can't remember the model off the top of my head) with a celeron m. it's running windows 7. it runs pretty well. as for linux, i've only tried antix on live media which ran alright.

>>73443 there's an unofficial 32 bit version of arch. i haven't tried it tho but it looks pretty promising https://archlinux32.org/

I have a t61, it's a bit older, but still works great. Try out Netsurf browser, it has it's own rendering engine, which works okayish. Sure, Firefox is going to render everything more seamlessly compared to Netsurf, but it's a good compromise. For operating systems my go-to is always OpenBSD, it's easy, lightweight, secure, well documented, has comfy mailing-lists and not considered harmful (RIP in peace Uriel).

>>73366 You shouldn't use Javascript anyway. I have it disabled completely. Tor Browser (with JS disabled completely in about:config) and links+ work great on my old thinkpad. If you want to watch youtube, go on Invidious, download it, watch it via mpv. (you don't have to download it with mpv, but it works better). Try to go without Javascript, lain. You wouldn't execute everything that somebody sends you on your OS, why then in your browser, in particular when it's mostly just for spying on you?

after you tamed devuan there's only one distro worth checking out and that's gentoo. you can also have some fun with nix or void, but they have problems afaik mainly packages maintenance and other menial stuff. i wish i had enough time to try out gentoo.

>>73441 Nothing too big, but proprietary stuff like discord which i still use for some reason don't offer compatible binaries (although discord probably wouldn't run very well on this hardware anyway). Really it's a me-problem.