Question on future armv7 support

Hello,

In February 2024, it was announced that FreeBSD is dropping support for 32-bit platforms.
This seems reasonable as probably no one launches new projects on i386, armv6, or powerpc.
However, the story with armv7 is a little bit different.

Armv7 is omnipresent on SoC platforms with FPGAs.
Not so long ago, AMD extended the lifecycle of its 7 Series SoCs to 2040.
I started using FreeBSD on 32-bit armv7 SoC platforms a few weeks ago.
My experience is surprisingly good.
It is much easier to use and maintain than the official PetaLinux released by AMD.

I would like to incorporate FreeBSD into embedded classes at the university.
I am also thinking about using it in a commercial project.
However, the uncertainty of future support for armv7 makes me reluctant.

Does anyone have more up-to-date information on whether armv7 support will also be dropped and potentially when?

I have also recently noticed that FreeBSD journal issues from May to December 2024 had columns dedicated to embedded FreeBSD.
All of them were written by Christopher R. Bowman, and utilized Zynq-7000 SoC, which is armv7 based.
I thought that the FreeBSD Foundation's actions are somehow coordinated with the FreeBSD development.
What would be the point of promoting something that a few months earlier was marked as a 'potentially deprecated'.

Best regards,
Michał Kruszewski
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