look at you with your fancy semiconductor, all i need are some rocks in a desert
this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2026
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Damn I hate when they increase the minimum requirements
Holy crap, I know FOR SURE now that most of you are no fun at parties. Good luck out there lol.
We're in a Linux meme community on Lemmy. There was no need for further confirmation lol
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Itβs funny but itβs not true
Well, not with 1. But collect a few million transistors,
Gosh, his character as 'himself' on Arrested Development was so damn good. It gets me every time. I think I'm way past due for another rewatch; thanks for reminding me! This was also a wonderful usage of the reference and gif! :)
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Plot twist: it's actually a whole SoC packaged to look like a single transistor, with the pins being for +V, ground, and a 1-Wire data bus.
I don't know that such a thing exists, but these days I bet it could.
You're right. A lightbulb plugged into a potato is the real minimum system requirement.
But could it run doom?!
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Requirements are one resistor. Gold band for optimal performance.
I code by laying out gravel patterns for crickets to run through.
I will probably be hated for this.
NetBSD's slogan is "Of course it runs NetBSD", and with good cause.
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I don't mean to brag, but I have two of those.
In this economy?!
Not quite just a transistor but maybe something like this (an SOC with 32MB ram which costs about $5 in bulk) though it does require quite a bit of additional electronics to work.
Also somebody also made an embedded Linux for the ESP32-S3 (which is even cheaper and doesn't require anywhere as much auxiliary electronics).
PS: Yeah, I got the joke. Just pointing out that the reality itself is quite impressive.
Some crazy fucker got the OG Tomb Raider to run on an ESP chip.
Although the ESP is significantly more powerful than the original console.
Tomb Raider... not Doom, I'm shocked
Well, the full realtime 3D aspect does make it significantly more impressive
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https://dmitry.gr/?r=05.Projects&proj=07.+Linux+on+8bit
This guy ran linux on 8-bit microcontroller by emulating a hogher end processor on an 8 bit computer. He also emulated the ram on an SD card.
Slow as heck, but can be done.
funny thing - the SDRAM used provides 300kb/sec, while the SDcard used as storage provides 200kb/sec. Performancewise they could just skip most of the ram outside of booting and use the SDcard without losing much performance, especially since the SDRAM needs to be refreshed every 62ms for a duration of 3ms regardless of use.
Edit: I LOVE this part:
It takes about 2 hours to boot to bash prompt ("init=/bin/bash" kernel command line). Then 4 more hours to boot up the entire Ubuntu ("exec init" and then login). Starting X takes a lot longer. The effective emulated CPU speed is about 6.5KHz, which is on par with what you'd expect emulating a 32-bit CPU & MMU on a measly 8-bit micro. Curiously enough, once booted, the system is somewhat usable. You can type a command and get a reply within a minute. That is to say that you can, in fact, use it. I used it to day to format an SD card, for example. This is definitely not the fastest, but I think it may be the cheapest, slowest, simplest to hand assemble, lowest part count, and lowest-end Linux PC. The board is hand-soldered using wires, there is not even a requirement for a printed circuit board.
6 hours to get into X is ridiculous- and i misread - it takes 6 hours to boot , and then hours more to get an X server running lol
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I know a guy who got Linux running on a diode.
This made me look up if you could somehow run it on vacuum tubes, sadly not
9 day boot time on a 4004!
OMG!
I booted Debian Linux on a 4-bit intel microprocessor from 1971 - the first microprocessor in the world - the 4004. It is not fast, but it is a real Linux kernel with a Debian rootfs on a real board whose only CPU is a real intel 4004 from the 1970s. The video is sped up at variable rates to demonstrate this without boring you. The clock and calendar in the video are accurate. A constant-rate video is linked below.
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I'm sure someone could figure out how to boot Linux on a vacuum tube computer. The problem is there just aren't that many around that are still operational.
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This thing runs arch by the way.
You can also wait for quantum fluctuations to randomly compute your thing...
You may not like it, but if your distro canβt run on this, itβs bloated.
I thought a 555 was the min spec?
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Shows image of a common NPN bipolar low power transistor
You're telling me that a Japanese (Nippon) person with wild mood swings and low self esteem who identifies as a trans sister, also runs Linux? How is this news.
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Some joker will get it to run on a 1N34A.
When someone complains about flatpak being bloated I always assume this is what their system is.
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