Honestly, 24MB is way too much for this setup

https://sub.wetshaving.social/post/2484387

I’m always a bit amazed of how things have progressed and on what Linux can still run.

This is an extreme example, but it’s also possible to run a modern Linux OS on SBCs like a Raspberry Pi Zero, and still have something somewhat usable depending on your needs.

To have a computer half the size of a credit card with more RAM than my full tower rig from 2001 is amazing. And it can even run software from that era with dosbox or wine.

My 15 years old laptop is still supported and can still read 1080p on YouTube, using Linux.

Linux devs just recently decided to drop support for 486 CPUs and some early Pentiums.

There’s just no competition.

Linux kernel is leaving 486 CPUs behind, only 18 years after the last one made

Linus Torvalds sees “zero real reason for anybody to waste one second” on them.

Ars Technica
Pretty much the only place it doesn’t run is where you have hard real-time requirements and on extremely small embedded micro controllers.
But isn’t there a RTOS Linux kernel?
Technically yes. But it can’t support many hard real-time use cases. For that you need a true RTOS, thought from the ground up for that purpose.
I miss QNX.
Only ever interacted with 6.0 beta. It was a great microkernel system. Even its GUI, Photon, was of a microkernel design, each module operating as a separate process. And it looked so good.
It’s still around. The latest release (8.0) is free-as-in-beer for non-commercial use. It’s still proprietary though.
Sort of. There’s realtime builds, but the Linux definition of real time is more relaxed than dedicated RTOS’s in exchange for a much more feature-filled OS. You should not use Linux if people could die when you miss a deadline. You want a simple system where it’s easier to prove that can never happen.
I believed the kinux kernel recently became real time?