32bit and gtk2 builds for Debian/Bookworm

[Night Wing]

Even some distros no longer offer 32 bit builds of their distro and Mint is one of them.

You sure about that? Looks like 32-bit to me.
2024-12-13_16-29.jpg

I'm more familiar with Mint in Cinnamon, Mate and Xfce which do not come with 32 bit, just 64 bit. These DE's are Ubuntu based. The developers of Mint started with Debian based LMDE because they figured if Ubuntu ever went off the deep end so to speak, their fallback plan would be Debian based.

Mint developers do not like Snaps since their users would be tied to the Snap store in Ubuntu. This is why Snap programs are not installed by default in Mint. That does not sit with Clem and the rest of Mint and the other Mint developers. I think they are offered in the repository. I am not sure since I do not use any Snap programs in Mint. Mint used to offer KDE as a DE, but it got dropped a few years ago.

I never tried LMDE because it comes with the Cinnamon DE and I do not care for Cinnamon. I prefer Xfce. I will say this though. If Mint decides to quit using Ubuntu as their base and becomes Debian based with Cinnamon and Mate DE's, but drops Xfce, then I would switch over to MX Linux with Xfce in 64 bit. Since I now know LMDE is 32 bit, should Mint leave Ubuntu based and go with Debian based, I am assuming Mint would offer Cinnamon and Mate DE's in 64 bit which is a logical guess and progression.

But here is scenario #2. If Mint would go strictly LMDE route, they could offer Cinnamon, Mate and Xfce in 64 bit and not offer 32 bit like they do now with LMDE 6.

Both of my 14", 64 bit HP dv4-5113cl and 64 bit dv4-5213cl laptops can use AVX. With both having 16 GB of memory, Intel i5 processors with 2.50 processor speed, with a 500 GB solid state drives in them, they both run 64 bit linux Pale Moon in 64 bit MX Linux with Xfce. The 5113 will be 13 years old in a few months and the 5213 will be 12 years old.

The 5113 is mine and the 5213 is my wife's. My wife does not use linux Pale Moon in her 5213. She prefers Waterfox. But Pale Moon is there if she wants to use it and the third browser is Firefox.

[Night Wing]

@ wmlive

You are power user. This is why you can compile Pale Moon. I am not a power user. Far from it. I will compile a browser since, for me, I do not like coding. For me, coding is aggravation.

Your bread and butter machine is a 64 bit Thinkpad. Your other older computers, you never stated how old they were. I have four computers. They are are considered by today's standards since two of them came with Windows 8 and one came with Windows. But all these four computers are 64 bit.

Years ago, there were plenty of computers coming in both 32 bit and 64 bit. I way back then 32 bit was going away before 64 bit. This is why I chose 64 bit computers over 32 bit computers.

As an example. My first laptop I ever bought was a 64 bit, HP dv4-5113cl model. It came with Windows 7. It has an Intel i5 processor, 2.50 processor speed, 16 GB's of memory, Beats audio, 250 GB platter hard drive, but no lighted keyboard. And it could handle AVX which is now causing a few problems for people whose computers are old. The laptop was bought new in the year of 2012. It is my traveling computer. I paid $249.00 for it back in 2012.

My wife liked this computer. Two years ago in 2022, she asked me if I could find another 5113 like mine. I told her it was real old and the chances of finding one were "slim and none". And it turned out, the answer was "none". But during my searches on eBay, I was lucky enough to find a 64 bit, HP dv4-5213cl model that looked just like my 5113. The specifications were the same. And it was manufactured in the year of 2013. The selling price was ($75.00).

I emailed the seller and he told me there was nothing wrong with it. It was his daughter's and she never really used it. The seller had a 100% rating on eBay with a 30 day return policy with no questions asked. I bought it and when it arrived, it was everything the seller said it was. What I did was immediately remove the platter drive and since I had a 500 GB Samsung SSD in a desk drawer, I installed it in the 5213.

I plugged the power cord (with the charger) into the wall and turned it on. It came to the desktop and it had Windows 8 on it. The wifi worked in it. The browser in it was Firefox. So I went to the MX Linux site and downloaded the newest iso version of 64 bit MX Linux with Xfce to the Desktop. I burned the iso to a thumb/flash drive. I then turned off the laptop, put the thumb drive in a USB port and turned it on while also tapping a key to bring up the Boot Menu.

When the Boot Menu was up, I arrowed down to the thumb drive and clicked Enter. It booted to the Desktop. I immediately hit the Install icon to start loading MX Linux. When MX was installed, I did all the updates, configured MX to my wife's liking, which including all the browser settings, getting all her pictures in the Thunar file manger, etc, etc.

The point I am trying to make is, I chose a 64 bit computer over a 32 bit computer. There are many "old" 64 bit computers on eBay and they can be got "on the cheap". One just has to find them just like I did.

You said you have some older computers which are 32 bit. You are a power user which means you have more "computer knowledge" than I have. So I am wondering with your computer knowledge, why would you choose a 32 bit computer over a 64 bit? But I am going to take a guess and that guess is, your 32 bit computers may be around 20 years old when 32 bit computers were "king of the hill".

Is my guess is close and if it is; then I could understand with your computer knowledge of compiling an update browser to run on a 32 bit computer, is a piece of cake for you.

[andyprough]

Please consider adjusting your directory listing format so people can see the full file names... or provide an index html with proper formatting.

Looks like it's all good now - full file names are showing up on wmlive's repo page.

Thanks for adding that to the Contributed Builds page @MC - these builds by @wmlive are a nice addition, Pale Moon has become one of the most supported browsers for Debian-based distros across different architectures.

[wmlive]

So I am wondering with your computer knowledge, why would you choose a 32 bit computer over a 64 bit? But I am going to take a guess and that guess is, your 32 bit computers may be around 20 years old when 32 bit computers were "king of the hill".

It's rather simple: I do not choose between 32bit or 64bit, or one over the other, i simply use both in appropriate contexts.

But then again, i'd rather prefer to view at it from a completely different angle:
We can and do use palemoon regardless of the CPU architecture, and enable that possiblity for others as well.
Why should we bother about whether it's 16bit, 32bit, 64bit, 128bit, or whatever, as long as it works?
That's all that matters.

I'm using computers since about 1994 and always kept one of the older replaced machines in order to properly run old software in their original environment.

And at times i am absolutely delighted by the snapiness and advanced usability of NeXTSTEP from 1995 on my old 32bit T60 Thinkpad.
We have left behind in the dust still amazing operating systems and a wealth of still abolutely useful software during the last 30 years.
But i digress...