should youtubers do a "linux test" on products they review?

[RonnieOP]

I dont think there should be any expectation for a creator to include linux unless they want to.

 

Theres plenty of linux based creators out there to watch if you need that content.

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

1 minute ago, Lord Xeb said:

Fedora and OpenSUSE (all of which are red hat based) you will mainly find in enterprise levels. You are right though, vary few use it. Debian overall and its flavors are much more popular mainly due to conical's push into the market for the past many many years. 

sure, but LTT doesn't see the enterprise as their target audience most of the time. if you want content for that go to Wendell (level1techs), he does do testing with fedora. LTT caters to gamers, and redhat based distro's aren't ideal for that as debian (and ubuntu, etc) and Arch have more support for that kind of thing. 

 

3 minutes ago, Lord Xeb said:

BTW, I got you beat there twilight, I have been using Ubuntu since 7.10. <.<

i started using it basically since i got a computer, it's a little hard to use linux as an 8 year old (which i was when 7.10 was current) without a computer lol

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

2 minutes ago, RonnieOP said:

I dont think there should be any expectation for a creator to include linux unless they want to.

i don't expect LTT to include linux. i am asking them nicely. 

 

2 minutes ago, RonnieOP said:

Theres plenty of linux based creators out there to watch if you need that content.

nobody even near the mainstream reach LTT has. there is Wendell, and he is amazing, but his channel is much smaller than LTT. 

[Pickles von Brine]

2 minutes ago, Twilight said:

sure, but LTT doesn't see the enterprise as their target audience most of the time. if you want content for that go to Wendell (level1techs), he does do testing with fedora. LTT caters to gamers, and redhat based distro's aren't ideal for that as debian (and ubuntu, etc) and Arch have more support for that kind of thing. 

 

i started using it basically since i got a computer, it's a little hard to use linux as an 8 year old (which i was when 7.10 was current) without a computer lol

Pretty impressive though kiddo (I am 30 so give me that right XD). 

Regardless, you hit it on the head. LTT mainly focuses on the grander audience and that means Windows. Sometimes linux but rarely. 

Who knows, with how things are progressing with Proton, it may be more of a thing. But most people are afraid to touch linux. 

[RonnieOP]

1 minute ago, Twilight said:

i don't expect LTT to include linux. i am asking them nicely. 

 

nobody even near the mainstream reach LTT has. there is Wendell, and he is amazing, but his channel is much smaller than LTT. 

Yes those channels are much smaller because the number of people who use linux are much much smaller.

 

Not enough people care about linux for it to make sense for someone like ltt to put in the time/effort/money to include it in most videos.

 

 

 

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

5 minutes ago, Lord Xeb said:

Regardless, you hit it on the head. LTT mainly focuses on the grander audience and that means Windows. Sometimes linux but rarely. 

LTT has made video's showcasing linux as a gaming platform depending on what games you wanna play. if you are big into CS:GO for example you'll be totally fine. or games that Proton supports. since they were so positive about linux then i think it makes sense that they start mentioning it more, and compatibility with devices they review is a quick and easy thing to test and mention in a video. 

 

5 minutes ago, Lord Xeb said:

Pretty impressive though kiddo (I am 30 so give me that right XD). 

lmao fair enough. i actually got into it because i had a second hand laptop at the time and the windows sticker was torn off, and the Windows 7 install on it bricked itself. so, with no key and being poor AF i had no choice if i wanted to continue using my laptop. my uncle was big into linux at the time and he recommended it to me. 

 

since i also wanted to game i had a full on Wine setup when i was like 13, i set it up completely by myself. since my laptop had an optical drive i was able to play a bunch of older games etc etc etc

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

1 minute ago, RonnieOP said:

Yes those channels are much smaller because the number of people who use linux are much much smaller.

that can change if more people know about it. 

 

2 minutes ago, RonnieOP said:

Not enough people care about linux for it to make sense for someone like ltt to put in the time/effort/money to include it in most videos.

LTT has made a number of video's on linux so they clearly feel like it's worth it. 

[Pickles von Brine]

1 minute ago, Twilight said:

LTT has made video's showcasing linux as a gaming platform depending on what games you wanna play. if you are big into CS:GO for example you'll be totally fine. or games that Proton supports. since they were so positive about linux then i think it makes sense that they start mentioning it more, and compatibility with devices they review is a quick and easy thing to test and mention in a video. 

 

lmao fair enough. i actually got into it because i had a second hand laptop at the time and the windows sticker was torn off, and the Windows 7 install on it bricked itself. so, with no key and being poor AF i had no choice if i wanted to continue using my laptop. my uncle was big into linux at the time and he recommended it to me. 

 

since i also wanted to game i had a full on Wine setup when i was like 13, i set it up completely by myself. since my laptop had an optical drive i was able to play a bunch of older games etc etc etc

There are so many parallels to what happened to me with linux it is scary. Seriously. XP system borked, key didn't work. Linux. I was 13?

Anyways, i see your point. It is rather reasonable honestly. 

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

Just now, Lord Xeb said:

There are so many parallels to what happened to me with linux it is scary. Seriously. XP system borked, key didn't work. Linux. I was 13?

holy crap seriously? that is indeed very very interesting. 

[RonnieOP]

2 minutes ago, Twilight said:

that can change if more people know about it. 

Its not like linux is some hidden secret. Plenty of people know about it. The reason people are not using it isnt because they dont know of it. Its because its just not a good option for most people.

 

3 minutes ago, Twilight said:

 

LTT has made a number of video's on linux so they clearly feel like it's worth it. 

Yea thats why i said "in most videos".

 

And that kinda helps prove my point. They have done some videos and those videos have millions of views. And those people are not wanting to go to linux even after seeing it.

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

1 minute ago, RonnieOP said:

Its not like linux is some hidden secret. Plenty of people know about it. The reason people are not using it isnt because they dont know of it. Its because its just not a good option for most people.

why not? what do most poeple do with their computer?

 

video streaming? totally fine. 

web browsing? you can get firefox, chrome, opera etc all on linux. 

gaming? more and more games are supporting proton and some like CS:GO are native titles. depending on what you play it's again, fine. 

 

sure, for some people like video editors it's not great right now, but that's a minority. 

 

3 minutes ago, RonnieOP said:

And that kinda helps prove my point. They have done some videos and those videos have millions of views. And those people are not wanting to go to linux even after seeing it.

seeing it demonstrated sure, but they didn't really go in depth with how easy this all is. they made the same error most experienced linux users make when speaking to noobs. they were too in depth. 

 

they could have just showed a stock ubuntu install, and went ok, firefox comes preinstalled, if you want chrome go to the software center and install it, and you can also install steam from there. now, we sign into steam, just like on Windows, CS:GO is there, we hit install and boom finished. 

 

instead they talked about package managers etc etc etc, all stuff that does not matter. a regular user does not need to know this. it just makes it seem more complicated than it is. 

[RonnieOP]

1 minute ago, Twilight said:

why not? what do most poeple do with their computer?

 

video streaming? totally fine. 

web browsing? you can get firefox, chrome, opera etc all on linux. 

gaming? more and more games are supporting proton and some like CS:GO are native titles. depending on what you play it's again, fine. 

 

sure, for some people like video editors it's not great right now, but that's a minority. 

 

seeing it demonstrated sure, but they didn't really go in depth with how easy this all is. they made the same error most experienced linux users make when speaking to noobs. they were too in depth. 

 

they could have just showed a stock ubuntu install, and went ok, firefox comes preinstalled, if you want chrome go to the software center and install it, and you can also install steam from there. now, we sign into steam, just like on Windows, CS:GO is there, we hit install and boom finished. 

 

instead they talked about package managers etc etc etc, all stuff that does not matter. a regular user does not need to know this. it just makes it seem more complicated than it is. 

Ease of use is the biggest thing. People are used to macOS and windows. They know how it works and they know 99% of the software they use will work right away. 

 

For gamers its a no go. Sure some games work but alot dont. Meaning they would need to have a dual boot system set up. And why dual boot when windows already can play all the games. 

 

My most played game right now is destiny 2. It doesnt work with proton, and people have been banned in game for running it via wine. I could do a virtual machine...but why would i want to emulate windows when i could just use windows?

 

Theres just not enough linux offers to get people to switch.  Esp now that windows is basically free.

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

2 minutes ago, RonnieOP said:

Ease of use is the biggest thing. People are used to macOS and windows. They know how it works and they know 99% of the software they use will work right away. 

 

For gamers its a no go. Sure some games work but alot dont. Meaning they would need to have a dual boot system set up. And why dual boot when windows already can play all the games. 

 

My most played game right now is destiny 2. It doesnt work with proton, and people have been banned in game for running it via wine. I could do a virtual machine...but why would i want to emulate windows when i could just use windows?

 

Theres just not enough linux offers to get people to switch.  Esp now that windows is basically free.

Linux is easier to use than Windows and macOS once you get used to it. 

 

why would you not want Windows? let's sum it up. you have no privacy on Windows, no control over updates, the OS is basically 25 years old in some parts, like the mouse settings still look like Windows 95, the theming is a mess, the settings are confusing because there are 2 settings apps, you get randomly passed around from interface to interface....

 

Dual Boot or a VFIO VM (if you have a spare gpu to use for it) is the best way for gamers. you can use Linux for all your serious computing and enjoy the freedom and privacy that come along with using it, and fire up Windows if you wish to play a game you cannot run under linux. dualboot has gotten stupidly simple to set up. install windows first, then fire up ubuntu and select install alongside windows in the installer, and boom done. again, loads of people don't know this because mainstream tech channels do not show how easy this kind of thing has become. 

[RonnieOP]

18 minutes ago, Twilight said:

Linux is easier to use than Windows and macOS once you get used to it. 

 

why would you not want Windows? let's sum it up. you have no privacy on Windows, no control over updates, the OS is basically 25 years old in some parts, like the mouse settings still look like Windows 95, the theming is a mess, the settings are confusing because there are 2 settings apps, you get randomly passed around from interface to interface....

 

Dual Boot or a VFIO VM (if you have a spare gpu to use for it) is the best way for gamers. you can use Linux for all your serious computing and enjoy the freedom and privacy that come along with using it, and fire up Windows if you wish to play a game you cannot run under linux. dualboot has gotten stupidly simple to set up. install windows first, then fire up ubuntu and select install alongside windows in the installer, and boom done. again, loads of people don't know this because mainstream tech channels do not show how easy this kind of thing has become. 

People keep bringing up privacy as if linux is going to help. Sure you dont have to worry about linux. Just every website and software you use. Everyones got a cell phone. And alot of people have smart speakers. If you concern is privacy then you need to take alot more steps then using linux to matter.

 

Windows isnt hard to use either. Its really really easy. Pretty straight forward. And since everyones already used to it. Theres no learning curve. 

 

Why learn a new os when your current works fine and you dont need to learn anything 

 

You do have controls over updates. You can turn them off very easily. I havent updated in months.

 

Theme isnt great. But most people dont care. And you can install themes as well.

 

Dual booting has always been easy. Its not that people cant figure out how to dual boot. Its just not worth it to most.

 

[Kisai]

10 minutes ago, Twilight said:

Linux is easier to use than Windows and macOS once you get used to it. 

 

 

NOPE!

 

"once you get used to it" is like saying "sure prison is easier than being a free person, you get free food, free health care, and a place to sleep" but it sure isn't a better experience. Linux, or a Prison limits you to what you can actually do, and that's a non-starter for all but some people who have no choice.

 

Arguably, MacOS X was always the "OS for dummies" , unlike windows, it hides all the functionality you don't need, and doesn't try to disguise it, like Windows does. Like as of Windows 8, there's two "control panel"'s, with often overlapping functionality. There's two kinds of "menus" systems, one of them from their failed Windows Mobile 8 UI, and all sorts of crap that can only be changed with the registry. Then there is Linux where "is it in /etc? is it in /usr/etc? is it in /usr/local/etc? is it in ~/.someplace?". At least if you installed the OS yourself you should know where the configuration file is. Good luck if your flavor of *nix wants things done it's way differently.

 

Linux is, simply a worse experience than Windows by any metric as a Desktop OS. Not only is stuff missing, hidden, or broken in Linux, but often obscure to the point of annoyance. Linux as a Desktop OS, is often falling behind Windows in usability, and if you need something that runs "unix stuff too" OSX has you covered and some high profile business software (eg Adobe, Autodesk, Microsoft (Office)) runs on Windows and OSX. Not Linux. As I've mentioned before in other threads, you simply can not run software designed for one version of Linux on another, because often the system libraries are missing or the wrong version. Even Windows and OSX suffer from this, but at least Windows will let you install them. Linux will not. Dependency hell is extremely painful on all *nix systems, not just Linux.

 

What would help Linux get any kind of adoption as a desktop OS would be for one of the big software companies to embrace it, yet funny enough the companies that do? Google, and IBM? They don't make desktop software. Chromium-based apps (including nw.js / electron) are almost entirely web-apps, and have a footprint of an entire desktop web browser, even if they use none of the HTML functionality (eg all canvas, or only a video player.) Software like Spotify and Pandora are massive when they could be 3MB programs (See WinAMP 2 before it was rewritten into a sloppy mess courtesy of AOL.) If only there was a common windowing language on all operating systems.

 

Yet I digress, people use Windows because either that's what the PC came with, or that's what they are familiar with. One does not trade the thing they know for the thing that costs more time to learn when the thing they know is still usable.

 

 

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

1 hour ago, RonnieOP said:

People keep bringing up privacy as if linux is going to help. Sure you dont have to worry about linux. Just every website and software you use. Everyones got a cell phone. And alot of people have smart speakers. If you concern is privacy then you need to take alot more steps then using linux to matter.

i don't have any smart devices. i have a phone but the privacy settings are locked down. the privacy issues with websites and software is a problem that needs fixing. you are proposing using an operating system that was built to spy on you instead of fixing the problem with the services and programs we use. you add fuel to the fire instead of putting it out. 

 

1 hour ago, RonnieOP said:

Windows isnt hard to use either. Its really really easy. Pretty straight forward. And since everyones already used to it. Theres no learning curve. 

tell that to the general consumer. i worked on an IT helpdesk and the amount of questions about just dumb shit like needing to open a file in VLC because the default app that microsoft shoves in your face lacks codecs was amazing.

 

1 hour ago, RonnieOP said:

Why learn a new os when your current works fine and you dont need to learn anything 

Winfows doesn't work "fine" for a lot of people and for some like me it's worth learning it to be more productive in the long run. for example, say i need to flash an iso file to a usb. on Windows i have to hunt down some iso burning software like Rufus, insert my usb drive, pray to the gods that i don't have to make a new partition table to remove remaining crap on that flash drive etc. in linux it's one command. 

 

1 hour ago, RonnieOP said:

You do have controls over updates. You can turn them off very easily. I havent updated in months.

those controls are not exposed to the general consumer. you can pause updates for a few days but that's it. when you enable them which you should as a normal user you just get a notification saying it will restart outside of "active hours". microsoft clearly does not realize people leave their systems on overnight doing something and do not want them to restart. on Linux i just get a notification that updates are available, and if i install them i can hit a button saying restart later and it won't bug me about it anymore and i can leave my computer on for as long as i want until i choose to reboot it. 

 

1 hour ago, RonnieOP said:

Theme isnt great. But most people dont care. And you can install themes as well.

it's confusing to the general consumer. metro has never worked well and will never work. 

 

1 hour ago, RonnieOP said:

Dual booting has always been easy. Its not that people cant figure out how to dual boot. Its just not worth it to most.

it wasn't as easy as it is now. regardless there si no downside. if you have spare storage space there is literally no downside. 

[Jarsky]

*nix use only accounts for 2% of market share, even MacOS dwarfs Linux as far as users.

If you consider how much of that market share is actual desktop use...you're talking about less than 1%. 

 

If you're interested in a product, then you can always do your own research before you buy. It's no doubt not worth their time to be researching and including content for the 1%. 

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

5 minutes ago, Jarsky said:

*nix use only accounts for 2% of market share, even MacOS dwarfs Linux as far as users.

everyone uses linux, if they know it or not. it runs basically the entire internet. even if it's not your primary OS it's worthwhile to know it. 

 

5 minutes ago, Jarsky said:

If you're interested in a product, then you can always do your own research before you buy. It's no doubt not worth their time to be researching and including content for the 1%. 

the issue is that compatibility for a device, say laptop model X is impossible to find unless the manufacturer has tested linux on it (dell makes special ubuntu versions of some models) or someone on the internet happens to have the same one and uses linux on it. almost no major publication tests linux on indicidual devices and i think this needs to change. 

[Kilrah]

1 hour ago, Twilight said:

in linux it's one command. 

But finding and learning that command is less user friendly than downloading a Windows program - and that's the whole problem.

 

1 hour ago, Twilight said:

everyone uses linux, if they know it or not. it runs basically the entire internet. even if it's not your primary OS it's worthwhile to know it. 

Yes but they never interact with it. Nobody's saying linux isn't good or useful, but interacting with it is what most common users have a hard time with.

[WereCatf]

1 hour ago, Twilight said:

everyone uses linux, if they know it or not. it runs basically the entire internet. even if it's not your primary OS it's worthwhile to know it.

That's like saying everyone uses Apache and Nginx and therefore it's worthwhile for everyone to learn them -- a complete garbage argument. When you're browing the Internet, do you know what web-servers each site is using in the background? No? Yeah, because you're not using the web-servers, you're using whatever is built on top of them.

[lewdicrous]

Youtubers shouldn't be forced to do something that they don't normally do.

If they make content for windows then they shouldn't be forced to make content for linux or macos.

If they make content for macos then they shouldn't be forced to make content for linux or windows.

If they make content for linux then they shouldn't be forced to make content for windows or macos.

 

No one is obligated to cater to your needs, I don't care what you like/don't like, find the creators who share your interests and stop forcing those who don't to get on your lane.

[Lord Vile]

15 hours ago, Twilight said:

i personally think that being able to run an OS that isn't Windows is very important when considering a device. since i use computers for longer than people generally do (my laptop is 8 years old) i need the ability to run linux if microsoft ever releases a version of Windows that is more bulky than the last and my device slows down. 

 

also i just prefer linux in general over Windows. 

 

i believe that youtubers should start doing linux tests on devices that are reviewed. nothing extensive, but just making sure that it boots up and the wifi chip has drivers and that the gpu is ok. i've seen a bunch of laptops before that either have no wifi drivers on linux or the speed is significantly slower on linux for some reason, and i think this is important to test. 

 

Level1Techs already does this with motherboard reviews and some laptops, and i wish LMG would start doing this as well. Linux has gotten some very positive coverage on LMG channels lately, and that's great, but mentioning that you can run it on a device they review (if possible of course, curse the T2 chip) would be an awesome addition. 

Don't think linux is big enough in the audience to warrant the hours of testing plus there's too much variation, what if they chose to run mint and you run DSL? 

[RonnieOP]

6 hours ago, Twilight said:

i don't have any smart devices. i have a phone but the privacy settings are locked down. the privacy issues with websites and software is a problem that needs fixing. you are proposing using an operating system that was built to spy on you instead of fixing the problem with the services and programs we use. you add fuel to the fire instead of putting it out. 

 

tell that to the general consumer. i worked on an IT helpdesk and the amount of questions about just dumb shit like needing to open a file in VLC because the default app that microsoft shoves in your face lacks codecs was amazing.

 

Winfows doesn't work "fine" for a lot of people and for some like me it's worth learning it to be more productive in the long run. for example, say i need to flash an iso file to a usb. on Windows i have to hunt down some iso burning software like Rufus, insert my usb drive, pray to the gods that i don't have to make a new partition table to remove remaining crap on that flash drive etc. in linux it's one command. 

 

those controls are not exposed to the general consumer. you can pause updates for a few days but that's it. when you enable them which you should as a normal user you just get a notification saying it will restart outside of "active hours". microsoft clearly does not realize people leave their systems on overnight doing something and do not want them to restart. on Linux i just get a notification that updates are available, and if i install them i can hit a button saying restart later and it won't bug me about it anymore and i can leave my computer on for as long as i want until i choose to reboot it. 

 

it's confusing to the general consumer. metro has never worked well and will never work. 

 

it wasn't as easy as it is now. regardless there si no downside. if you have spare storage space there is literally no downside. 

If people are having issues with figuring out how to use vlc and stop auto updates on windows do you really think they are going to have a good time in linux? They have been using windows basically their whole life and its hard....and you think linux is going to be a walk in the park for them? It takes about 2 mins to google how to stop windows updates. If thats hard for them linux is a no go. 

 

Your right there is no downside if you have the storage space. But for a lot of people theirs no upside either. 

 

Dont get me wrong. I dont hate linux. Im not saying its horrible or that nobody should use it. Im just being realistic. Most people dont care enough about it to make it a consideration in alot of videos.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

10 hours ago, Lord Xeb said:

Pretty impressive though kiddo (I am 30 so give me that right XD)...

it wasn't until I was in my mid 30s that I got my first computer (Commodore Plus 4--a freebie for me--quickly followed by a C64c). At work, we were still using dumb mainframe terminals.

10 hours ago, Lord Xeb said:

There are so many parallels to what happened to me with linux it is scary. Seriously. XP system borked, key didn't work. Linux. I was 13?...

I had to chuckle at those statements. When I was 13, no one ever dreamed of having computers at home or even in most businesses (heck, computers with the computing power and storage capacity of most current laptops were the size of a home or small business). That wasn't even the stuff of most science fiction back then.

 

8 hours ago, Kisai said:

...Linux is, simply a worse experience than Windows by any metric as a Desktop OS. Not only is stuff missing, hidden, or broken in Linux, but often obscure to the point of annoyance. Linux as a Desktop OS, is often falling behind Windows in usability, and if you need something that runs "unix stuff too" OSX has you covered and some high profile business software (eg Adobe, Autodesk, Microsoft (Office)) runs on Windows and OSX. Not Linux. As I've mentioned before in other threads, you simply can not run software designed for one version of Linux on another, because often the system libraries are missing or the wrong version. Even Windows and OSX suffer from this, but at least Windows will let you install them. Linux will not. Dependency hell is extremely painful on all *nix systems, not just Linux...

 

When was the last time you even tried Linux? None of that has been my experience with Mint Cinnamon 19.x. Most of what you are referring to is simply an unfamiliarity with how Linux works. If someone who cut their eyeteeth on Linux tried to switch to Windows or Mac OS, you would be hearing the same complaints.

 

Granted, few Windows programs will run on Linux. Expecting them to do so is like expecting a diesel engine to run on gasoline or Ford pistons to work in Chevy engines. Linux has its own programs that will accomplish most of what can be done with Windows programs, sometimes doing it better and even doing things that can't be done in Windows or Mac OS. The only time this isn't practical is when companies require their employees to all use the same programs and OS as everyone else (and there is good reason for that; it would be a compatibility and IT department nightmare otherwise).

 

Adobe Acrobat Standard can be replaced with a program called PDF Studio Pro. PDF Studio, featurewise, falls between Acrobat Standard and Acrobat Pro, cost far less than Acrobat, doesn't require frequent security updates, each version doesn't have an EOL like Acrobat, and isn't cloud or subscription based. It does have a learning curve but, once I got over that, I find it easier to use than Acrobat.

 

Other Adobe programs has less direct replacements with various Linux programs. Sometimes, more than one program may be needed to accomplish what one Adobe program may do but, often, that actually simplifies things.

 

MS Office can be easily replaced with LibreOffice (LO). In fact, LO can do more than MS Office in Linux. It also has a learning curve but, once that is out of the way, it is somewhat easier to use than MS Office. It's even compatible with MS Office filetypes. And, it's free!

 

I don't know where you get the idea of "dependency hell" from. It may have been a problem in the past but, nowadays, most programs for Linux can be installed from repositories which will also automatically find, download, and install any needed dependencies. I haven't run into a dependency issue yet. It may seem like a nightmare on the surface but it's actually more efficient and results in a lighter weight OS.

 

Today's Linux is not your Daddy's Linux.

[straight_stewie]

One of the points that hasn't been made here is that the proposed test would be more of a test of Linux than a test of the hardware it's being run on.

Do the drivers exist? Does it run stably? Is a distribution for the platform available in an easy to install package or do you have to build one from source?

Of course, any computer is capable of running any software built to run on that computer, so the only question that the proposed "Linux Test" could answer would be "is there a version of Linux built to run on this machine?" If the answer to that question is no, the question then becomes "Is there a version of Linux that I can configure and then build to run on this machine?"

Well, we don't need to run a test on every factory computer to answer those questions: For the vast majority of computing machines in existence, there exists some version of Linux prepackaged that runs on that machine. For the rest of the computing machines, there exists a version of Linux that can be configured and then built from source to run on that machine.

The one caveat to that answer is if the machine was designed or produced before roughly 1991, specifically, the pre-IBM-PC era, then things might get weird on you. But in my experience, people who collect vintage machines usually aren't interested in marring them up with modern OSs, they are collected specifically for their vintage rather than for their usefulness.