One of the plus points of using Linux is its ongoing support for very old systems. It’s even advertised as an operating system to give old machines a new lease of life. However, how old those machines can actually be took a hit yesterday as Linus Torvalds removed support for 386 CPUs from the Linux kernel.
Intel’s 32-bit 386 processor was first introduced in 1985 and production continued until September 2007. The long life stemmed from the fact the 386 was used in embedded systems and even mobile phones. It has been long dead on the desktop, though, unless you kept one for nostalgia.