Used an old eee701 as a server for a fair while, pretty sure that was equal or less power usage than the Pis at the time.

Huzzah!

No better time to learn!

" The minimal configuration for a NetBSD/i386 system requires at least 32M of RAM and 512M of disk space. Smaller configurations are possible, but require e.g. custom kernel configurations.

Any i486 or better CPU should work - genuine Intel or a compatible such as Cyrix, AMD, or NexGen."

Can always go for NetBSD?

Bunsenlabs is worth a shot

Maybe https://www.bunsenlabs.org/

Maybe some Machine Head?

Lutris is pretty good

Artix for similar reasons

Preferred the way the old version looked, but I can’t really fault liferea

A Thinkpad will have to do

You’ve got Artix if you’re a Arch fan too

pipewire?

At least Reaper has Linux ports, better than nothing.

LFS?

And yay

Wouldn’t that be Gentoo?

I’d imagine it would work fine. You can always try Mint out from the LiveUSB and see if any issues occur.

The installer’s defaults should be enough to get it done without any hassle.

It was before I had a CD writer (or DVD drive!), and it came with Linux Format magazine. I think it was the easiest and most user friendly way of getting started at the time.

Mandrake > Ubuntu > Debian > Mint > Arch > Artix

Settled on Artix for openrc and all the aur goodness