28 years after the final Intel 486 desktop CPUs rolled off assembly lines, Linux is finally dropping support for it
Publish Date: 2026-04-06 20:36:00
Source Domain: www.pcgamer.com
It’s a given that the question “What’s the oldest computer you can run modern Linux on?” would produce a more gratifying answer than “What’s the oldest computer you can run modern Windows on?” given Windows 11’s draconian hardware requirements. But I have to say I had no idea the answer to the former question dated back to the 1990s—or, depending on your perspective, the 1980s. Alas, all computers must eventually make their way to the great e-waste center in the sky, as Phoronix reports that the Linux kernel maintainers are beginning to phase out support for Intel’s legendary 486 platform.
(Image credit: Frank Zheng)
That’s still, uh, pretty old, which makes it hard to argue with the father of Linux, Linus Torvalds, when he says it’s time to drop support for the 486. “I *really* don’t think i486 class hardware is relevant any more,” he wrote. “Yes, I’m sure it exists … but from a kernel development standpoint I don’t think they are really relevant.
Article continues below
You may like
“At some point, people have them as museum pieces. They might as well run museum kernels.”
Torvalds actually wrote that back in October 2022, but it took a few years for the kernel developers to get around to dropping it. But it’s finally happening. A patch expected to be merged into Linux 7.1 will begin rooting out the remaining code dedicated to the i486, which developer Ingo Molnar says will be beneficial to future kernel development.
“We have various complicated hardware emulation…
