Comment by ndiddy
1 day ago
Another thing to keep in mind if you have an old netbook lying around is that a lot of the later models that came out after Windows 7 have PowerVR graphics (rebranded as "Intel GMA 3600") instead of the basic Intel chipset graphics. The only operating systems that will work with the GMA 3600 are 32-bit Windows 7 and whatever version of Fedora was current in 2012 (thanks to a closed source beta driver Intel released).
> A tip if you have one of those laying around and it always ran a 32-bit OS is to check if the CPU is really 32-bit only. Only the very first Atom generation was 32-bit, but the next generations had poor 64-bit driver support on Windows, so OEMs shipped it as a 32-bit machine. Not the case for OP’s netbook, theirs is really 32-bit only.
A lot of netbooks will lock the CPU into 32-bit mode in the BIOS, so getting them to boot a 64-bit OS also requires patching the BIOS. It's doable but has limited benefits when they're limited to 2-4 GB of RAM anyway.
> It's doable but has limited benefits when they're limited to 2-4 GB of RAM anyway.
Back in the day there was no real benefit. Today it's different as most Linux distros don't really care much about supporting 32 bit anymore.
The VAIO P and some Panasonic rugged handhelds have those chips, both interesting machines, I think it would be possible to write a modern Mesa driver for those but it would be a lot of work.
Someone should vibe reverse that driver