It’s funny but it’s not true

Well, not with 1. But collect a few million transistors,

But could it run doom?!

You're right. A lightbulb plugged into a potato is the real minimum system requirement.

Linux requires at least 32 bit machine words, and it always has. Linux was originally written for Intel 80386.

Linux requires a hardware MMU to support virtual memory. There are patches that can make a no-MMU kernel, but it drastically changes the experience to do so.

Hey you

When someone complains about flatpak being bloated I always assume this is what their system is.

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.

Does not compute. A Turing machine (with limited tape so it can be built for real) does though, whether transistorized or not.

Not with that attitude!

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.

(Optional)

You can make it go faster by blowing on it.

I had an old Chromebook I converted to a Linux machine. It only had 16gb of disk space. It filled up surprisingly fast.

88 pins, that's way too many!

Is there a 32 pin DIP-32 chip that can run Linux?

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.

You are allowed to notice things are less efficient than they could be even with plenty of resources

looks at the community name
reads at the comment
Smh

This meme made me wonder what's the minimum number of transistors needed to run linux

While I agree this is funny, if you even just install one flatpack like steam that is like 15+ gb by itself. A fairly comprehensive system with kde, gimp, blender office and more take up much less space.

This made me look up if you could somehow run it on vacuum tubes, sadly not

But https://www.linux-magazine.com/Online/News/Hacker-Successfully-Runs-Linux-on-a-CPU-from-the-Early-70s

9 day boot time on a 4004!

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! :)

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

There are some not practical, but workable as proof of concept examples that go even lower:

https://hackaday.com/2012/03/28/building-the-worst-linux-pc-ever/

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.

Linux needs a proper MMU

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.

You may not like it, but if your distro can’t run on this, it’s bloated.

I will probably be hated for this.

NetBSD's slogan is "Of course it runs NetBSD", and with good cause.

- https://www.netbsd.org/about/portability.html

Install directly into the base of the brainstem

Well it is kinda cheating but Linux does "run" on a intel 4004 running a MIPS emulator

I think you could cook something like a 4-bit turing complete computer with around 100 transistors or so. And i guess turing completeness basically means "it will run with enough elbow grease" in this case

(if we exclude memory from the transistor count...)

Actually, no.

I don't mean to brag, but I have two of those.

Ok, but with emulation and enough time, you can run any software on as much as a light switch.

Don't get it twisted

[Optional]

There's an ESP32 with MMU running Linux now

I will probably be hated for this

Why?

Of course you can run it on tubes, in principal, since they do the same as transistors at the end of the day

I guess I more wondered if some madlad had actually done it

>Not quite
>has about 1.5 million gates in the CPU alone
>each gate is multiple transistors

Tomb Raider... not Doom, I'm shocked

I think someone already did that one

figures

Well, as two people already pointed out, turns out somebody got Linux to run on the 8-bit ATMega1284p microcontroller which comes in a DIP package, though it's 44 pin rather than 32.

wait till you hear about igbt trans sisters

Someone has done this with relays so I don't blame you for asking.

BSD isn't Linux.

Requirements are one resistor. Gold band for optimal performance.