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Subscribe to our newsletter 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.

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(Image credit: Frank Zheng)The i486 debuted in 1989, with some of the later chips in the line dramatically improving performance over the prior generation i386 despite still being measured in double-digit megahertz.

The final desktop 486 CPUs were released in 1995 and ceased production in 1998, as Intel moved into the Pentium era ## Editor's Note The gaming community will surely have mixed reactions to this news. Source: [PC Gamer](https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/28-years-after-the-final-intel-486-desktop-cpus-rolled-off-assembly-lines-linux-is-finally-dropping-support-for-it/)