Modern GNU/Linux for your 90s beige tower. Run a server on the machines everyone threw away.
user@mentalnet:~$ neofetch
Mentalnet GNU/Linux R1 FirstStorm i586 Kernel : 6.12.104-mentalnet-intel32 Media : Live CD (~100 MB) + built-in installer CPU : i586 (Pentium / Pentium MMX) or newer x86 RAM : 128 MB minimum (64 MB usually works) Login : root / mnlinux Services: DHCP · lighttpd · dropbear SSH · chronyd · nftables
Mentalnet GNU/Linux is a light, TTY-only GNU/Linux distribution built for 90s Intel Pentium-class (i586) machines, based on Buildroot 2025.02.17. It runs a modern 6.12.x kernel on hardware that shipped when CD-ROM drives were magic.
Your beige tower doesn't have to sit in the trash heap. Its next life is a
headless server: DHCP, lighttpd web server, dropbear SSH, chronyd
NTP sync and an nftables firewall — it all starts out of the box from a
live CD with a read-only root filesystem, which also carries the
built-in hard disk installer (mentalnet-install).
Current release
R1 "FirstStorm" — named after DECO*27's Chūlán ~First Storm~ (初嵐～First Storm～).
user@mentalnet:~$ ls -lh isos/ mentalnet-gnulinux-intel32-R1-FirstStorm.iso ~100 MB SHA256-verified
Screenshots
neofetch and df -h — Pentium 75–200 @ 100 MHz, 128 MB RAM, on 86Box
vim on the installer source and git clone over eth0 — same Pentium, same day