postmarketOS is genuinely amazing on ultra low end PCs (details in the post) (feddit.org)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by supermarkus@feddit.org to c/linux@lemmy.world

20 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Over the weekend I was given a crap 2in1 notebook. It is 10 years old and even by standards back then had low end hardware (MSRP was 300 Euro according to some googling).

The Atom CPU is 64bits, the UEFI 32bits – a combinaon I completely forgot existed and many distributions no longer support.

Not only does postmarketOS support 32bit UEFI, thanks to its smartphone focus it comes with zram preconfigured. Installation was easy using the graphical installer for generic x86-64.

So now I run a fully featured desktop, KDE Plasma, on it. None of that "lightweight" stuff that sacrifices features and usability for a few megabytes of RAM.

I only tweaked it a little bit. Firefox ran like shit. Chromium was better in that regard but for whatver reason YouTube specifically kept logging me out. Also RAM ran out once and Chromium was force closed by the OS.

I ended up installing KDE’s Falkon browser which offers the benefits of Chromium’s rendering speed without the logging out of YouTube part. It's also a bit less resource intensive, yet comes wih an ad blocker and support for user scripts which relieves the lack of proper extensions.

pmOS doesn't come with swap by default. I added a swap file which is quickly done. It's barely used since switching to Falkon, currently only 100MB.

YouTube video playback at 1080p is smooth. Zero problems with suspend so far.

I'm not sure if it's the result of defective hardware or just driver incompatibilities but Bluetooth is not recognized (bummer) and the camera isn't either (don't care for it).

Long story short:

I rescued a crap PC from the scrap pile. It's now genuinely usable, albeit with the aformentioned caveats.

top 20 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[-] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 6 points 1 week ago

These low end computers are always a fun challenge. You end up trying a bunch of programs you have never even heard of, and you can also learn something along the way.

[-] supermarkus@feddit.org 3 points 1 week ago

pmOS / Alpine Linux is definitively a bit outside my comfort zone. The apk package manager is so weird with its add and del commands instead of install and remove everyone else uses.

[-] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 week ago

I can see they were aiming for shorter commands. Makes sense if you have to type them using a mobile phone.

[-] JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Great job. As I see it the real problem is that low-end Wintel laptops seem to be going away, replaced first by Chromebooks and soon probably by Android laptop edition, which presumably will have the non-Intel architecture and weird blobs and locked bootloader of any smartphone. Or is this too pessimistic?

[-] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago

Nah mate, it's hard to be too pessimistic these days. That's probably just the right amount of pessimism.

[-] supermarkus@feddit.org 0 points 1 week ago

I think devices like the Framework 12 continue to be available but RAM and SSD costs won't necessarily mean that lower end performance will not necessarily mean afforable, at least all the way through 2026.

[-] JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

Hmm. Having trouble parsing your negatives but I think you're saying "expensive".

What bothers me is that a decade ago there were loads of Linux-compatible budget netbooks on sale at every big-box retailer, whereas there seems to be nothing today under 500 bucks/euro except Chromebooks, and nothing at all with a smallish screen except mega-expensive ultrabooks. It's becoming a problem.

[-] communism@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 week ago

Luckily the second hand laptops from that era are still usually perfectly usable if you install some FOSS OS on it (Linux, BSDs, the various more obscure ones, tend to work fine on old computers). You can pick them up for quite cheap on ebay and the like, and then you have a perfectly usable daily driver (plus from before the era of seemingly trying to get rid of all the ports on a laptop).

[-] OR3X@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

I tried and tried to get postmarketos running on my 2013 Nexus 7 but never could get it to work.

[-] AZX3RIC@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

I'm in the same boat, have a 2012, can't even get through the instructions.

[-] OR3X@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Curious, which part do you get stuck at? I get all the way to the point where I flash the rootfs and it fails complaining that there isn't enough space even though I specify the userdata partition as the target partition which has ~12GB of free space.

[-] morto@piefed.social 1 points 1 week ago

As a ultra low end user, you caught my interest here! Definitely gonna try

[-] Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world 0 points 1 week ago

If it has a replaceable drive you could check the bluetooth by putting in a new drive and installing somwthing like windows 7 just to see if it is in fact a driver error

[-] supermarkus@feddit.org 1 points 1 week ago

It came with a factory reset version of Win10 but that ran so insanely bad, it kept crashing which to this degree isn't normal even for Windows which is why I suspect faulty hardware.

[-] lauha@lemmy.world -3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Boy do we have different definition of ultra low end. I find that machine low end but not extremely so.

[-] TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

I'd say your definition is an odd one, then.

OP's hardware is extremely low end.

[-] lauha@lemmy.world 0 points 1 week ago

While in windows world that might be so, that hardware is in no way an extreme case to run a linux distro on. Just a normal walk in the park.

[-] TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 0 points 1 week ago

It really isn't. It's extremely low end.

[-] lauha@lemmy.world -1 points 1 week ago

It's already established that we disagree. There's no point continuing this conversation.

[-] TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Then why are you continuing? I'm not saying that you can't disagree, you're free to disagree.

I'm just saying it's extremely low end, and it's true.

this post was submitted on 29 Dec 2025

49 points (100.0% liked)

Linux

14789 readers

40 users here now

Welcome to c/linux!

Welcome to our thriving Linux community! Whether you're a seasoned Linux enthusiast or just starting your journey, we're excited to have you here. Explore, learn, and collaborate with like-minded individuals who share a passion for open-source software and the endless possibilities it offers. Together, let's dive into the world of Linux and embrace the power of freedom, customization, and innovation. Enjoy your stay and feel free to join the vibrant discussions that await you!

Rules:

Stay on topic: Posts and discussions should be related to Linux, open source software, and related technologies.
Be respectful: Treat fellow community members with respect and courtesy.
Quality over quantity: Share informative and thought-provoking content.
No spam or self-promotion: Avoid excessive self-promotion or spamming.
No NSFW adult content
Follow general lemmy guidelines.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

MigratingtoLemmy@lemmy.world