It is true. It was written to run on 386 when all the other unix os required way more expensive machines that nobody could afford.

And Windows was written for the 8086. By that logic, Windows was designed for even weaker potatoes.

Except linux still runs on 486 but windows requires a 5 year old machine?

486 support was dropped over a decade ago back in 2013 in Linux 3.8.

Are you seriously saying that linux and windows have the same minimal requirements?