On 5/23/22 07:59, jim.cromie(a)gmail.com wrote:
so Ive got some old i686 computers,
electronics recycle day approaches, but before I do that,
I thought Id try to get them working
<(snip)>
If you're willing to step away from Fedora a small distance, you may
wish to check out the Mageia Linux distribution, now at version 8.
Mageia publishes a version based on the i586 architecture using
rpm-based packages, so there is some degree of direct compatibility with
Fedora.
If one uses the compare packages between distributions tool provided
online by
distrowatch.com, and compares Fedora rawhide versus Mageia
cauldron, one will find that there is only a handful of packages that
the two distributions do not share.
So, it may well be that the Mageia i586 variant may be the software
needed to keep your older hardware active and productive.
And, if you like the Mageia distribution and its community sufficiently
well, it might be the case that your skills can be of assistance to that
Linux community.
https://www.mageia.org/en/
Ken