BSDInstall: merging to HEAD

Anton Shterenlikht mexas at bristol.ac.uk
Thu Jan 20 16:58:37 UTC 2011


On Sat, Jan 15, 2011 at 12:58:33AM -0600, Ade Lovett wrote:
> 
> On Jan 14, 2011, at 19:31 , Marcel Moolenaar wrote:
> > On Jan 14, 2011, at 10:26 AM, Nathan Whitehorn wrote:
> > 
> >> The final architecture on which we use sysinstall, ia64, is currently unsupported, because I don't know how to set up booting on those systems -- patches to solve this are very much welcome.
> > 
> > Don't let this stop you. I'll work with you on this after the dust
> > has settled.
> 
> Just out of random curiosity.  Seriously.
> 
> Exactly why, short of "of course it runs", in which case NetBSD is --> way, why are we even trying to handle ia64 as a platform, regardless of tier, when it is patently obvious that it is going absolutely _nowhere_ in terms of a viable platform?
> 

I was waiting for a developer to reply, but anyway..

I don't know why you, the FreeBSD project, offer
ia64 distribution, but as a user I'm very grateful
to you for providing it. I think NetBSD is nowhere
near FreeBSD on ia64 support.

I've learnt things with FreeBSD/ia64 (and with
FreeBSD/alpha before it) which I woudn't have
leart otherwise. I've 3 FreeBSD/ia64 boxes and
by and large I'm very happy with this platform.
I can do all I need to do with it. The ~400 or
so ports installed on my system is good enough.
 
> At least I can pick up a box for <$50 from ebay and run /sparc64 on it.  Say the same for /ia64?  Didn't think so.
> 

Well.. ia64 is more expensive, yes. But.. I think
it can give you more. I'm quite
tempted to get this server, for example:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280618792191

But sparc64 is good as well. In fact, I use
a FreeBSD/sparc64 box as an Xserver to view clients
running on FreeBSD/ia64. 

many thanks for your excellent work
anton


-- 
Anton Shterenlikht
Room 2.6, Queen's Building
Mech Eng Dept
Bristol University
University Walk, Bristol BS8 1TR, UK
Tel: +44 (0)117 331 5944
Fax: +44 (0)117 929 4423


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