62
Is a old raspberry pi viable for anything with Linux?
(programming.dev)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2026
62 points (100.0% liked)
Linux
57274 readers
426 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
The biggest limitation on the older models is RAM. There's other issues with network contention (the Ethernet is actually a USB device on the board), raw CPU (especially gen 1 boards), but really it's all about the RAM.
I use these kinds of boards for more hardware/embedded kinds of situations. No GUI Linux machines will easily run in 200-400MB of RAM before you start spinning up additional services or tools.
If you're really RAM blocked you can use a more stripped down Linux install or even hop to BSD and run real lean on resources for the OS. All of these options can still run most network services or simple build/dev kinds of support systems. They could be message queue servers, run GPIO-driven hardware systems, be sensor platforms, run DNS/DHCP/PiHole kinds of systems, be a speaker driver endpoint for a larger system, bong a clock sound every hour, or whatever. That's just what I could come up with while typing on the fly. If you start adding hardware to the IO ports it just goes nuts what even the older boards are capable of.