Linux

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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.

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Slowly booting full Linux on the intel 4004 for fun, art, and absolutely no profit - Linux/4004 Dmitry.GR (dmitry.gr)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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TL;DR

I booted Debian Linux on a 4-bit intel microprocessor from 1971 - the first microprocessor in the world - the 4004. It is not fast, but it is a real Linux kernel with a Debian rootfs on a real board whose only CPU is a real intel 4004 from the 1970s. The video is sped up at variable rates to demonstrate this without boring you. The clock and calendar in the video are accurate. A constant-rate video is linked below.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

How is it "full Linux" when Linux has always required an integrated MMU (which is why it's never supported anything less than a 386)? I mean, yes, you can modify it to run on more primitive chips at the expense of having proper virtual memory support, but if you do that I don't think it counts as "full Linux" anymore!

[–] [email protected] 38 points 2 months ago (1 children)

If you read the article, it is indeed full Linux because the 4004 is running a MIPS emulator that provides the necessary memory management features. Pretty much all of the "run Linux on some old chip incapable of running Linux" projects achieve it via emulating a more featured architecture that Linux supports, not by somehow compiling Linux to natively run on a 4 bit, MMU-less architecture.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This is the whole idea behind Turing-completeness, isn't it? Any Turing-complete architecture can simulate any other.

Reminds me of https://xkcd.com/505/

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Any time I see an article about someone doing things with Redstone circuits, I think about that comic.