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My 32 bit PC has been running on Ubuntu 14.04, which is no longer supported. The subsequent Ubuntu releases are for 64 bit machines. I am therefore concerned to know about two things:

  1. What exactly are the hazards of continuing with an unsupported OS like Ubuntu 14.04?
  2. If it is not advisable to continue with it, what other distributions can work for me and run my presently installed apps?
user255726
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  • You can install Xubuntu or Lubuntu. – Pilot6 Jul 22 '20 at 10:22
  • Numerous Ubuntu flavors are still supported; eg. Lubuntu 18.04 LTS which has support until 2021-April, however it's not alone. Which is best for you depends on what you want to use it for, what software you'll use, plus what your likes/dislikes are. I tested Lubuntu 18.04 LTS, Xubuntu 18.04 LTS & a few others using x86 only machines from 2005 up (including pentium 4, pentium M etc). Lubuntu & Xubuntu also produced 18.10 ISOs, and updates were available through the 19.04 cycle, however it's all history as all are EOL. – guiverc Jul 22 '20 at 10:28
  • Ubuntu 16.04 LTS is also still supported, and it was available in x86 ISO (desktop & server). Ubuntu 18.04 LTS media was also available in x86, however the default desktop is really to heavy (in my opinion at least) to run a GNOME desktop (it'll depend on cpu, but I'm assuming pentium M, pentium 4, or pentium D cpus) c2d & later cpus run it well, but they're also amd64/64-bit. I'm still using thinkpad r50p, thinkpad t42 .. and opt for a supported releases over EOL software. You can use 14.04 ESM with support, which is always an option (free within certain limits) – guiverc Jul 22 '20 at 10:32
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    This link: Old hardware brought back to life, a thread at the Ubuntu Forums, may be helpful. – sudodus Jul 22 '20 at 10:58
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    Is the computer a need to use or one you just want to keep using/running till it dies? Think most Ubuntu favours that will work decently on it will be out of support next year anyway. Out of support OSs do have greater chance of being non secure, if on internet. For long time use might have to check out other distros than Ubuntu. – crip659 Jul 22 '20 at 11:24

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https://itsfoss.com/lightweight-linux-beginners/

look at the list above the get some ; and dude, i just googled ¨linux 32 bit distro¨ to get this comprehensive list of mostly 32bits distros. i would reccommend Xubuntu or any of the other Ubuntu flavours - they have most support, best drivers and overall a better compatibility than most other distros.

Bas Lamerichs
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    I don't think much of the quality of that article? Have you tried some of the suggested distros on a single core pentium M laptop with 1GB of RAM. Yes Ubuntu-MATE was good on it in earlier releases, but the porting from GTK2 to GTK3 had a pretty significant performance hit that made me stop using GNOME on limited cpus. The same hit was found with Xubuntu (as it moved from GTK2 to GTK3, however that move occurred later than MATE). That article to me feels like it was written for 14.04 era & just changed, without any re-test.. – guiverc Jul 22 '20 at 10:44