Honestly, I get wanting to keep using those laptops and that a perk of Linux is extending a device’s usable lifespan, but the last i386 machines are probably ~20 years old at this point; I think an upgrade is justified.

You can score an old AMD64 machine for next to nothing these days - you might even find something throwing one out; I think the sweet spot is a 1st or 2nd generation Intel Core i Series machine.

A possible option is to stick to Debian 13, but use a hand-built kernel, since Debian 13 still includes the i386 port. Of course, it also depends on your exact CPU and other hardware as well as what you want to run in it.

Just stick with bookworm? It'll have LTS support until 2033. Though you really should consider replacing hardware that old.

@foxy @alpinelinux @VoidLinux @debian I switched to Slackware 15 for 32 bit support about 2 years ago... Debian and systemd is too heavy for i386 hardware