considering i386 as a tier 1 architecture

[Mehmet Erol Sanliturk]

On Sun, Mar 31, 2013 at 9:48 PM, Eitan Adler <lists at eitanadler.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I am writing this email to discuss the i386 architecture in FreeBSD.
>
> Computers are getting faster, but also more memory intensive.  I
> can not find a laptop with less than 4 or 8 GB of RAM.  Modern
> browsers, such as Firefox, require a 64bit architecture and 8GB of
> RAM.  A 32 bit platform is not enough now a days on systems with
> more than 4 GB of RAM.  A 32 bit core now is like 640K of RAM in
> the 1990s.  Even in the embedded world ARM is going 64 bit with
> ARMv8.
>
> Secondly, the i386 port is unmaintained.  Very few developers run
> it, so it doesn't get the testing it deserves.  Almost every user
> post or bug report I see from a x86 compatible processor is running
> amd64.  When was the last time you booted i386 outside a virtual
> machine?  Often times the build works for amd64 but fails for i386.
>
> Finally, others are dropping support for i386.  Windows Server 2008
> is 64 bit only, OSX Mountain Lion (10.8) is 64-bit only.   Users
> and downstream vendors no longer care about preserving ancient
> hardware.
>
> I hope this email is enough to convince you that on this date we
> should drop support for the i386 architecture for 10.0 to tier 2
> and replace it with the ARM architecture as Tier 1.
>
> --
> Eitan Adler
>



This idea is really very good .

The FreeBSD Project man power , for me , is wasted to maintain a branch
that it is NOT necessary to make it a first class branch . 1 Giga Bytes ,
and even 2 Giga Bytes memory chips are disappearing from the computer shops
slowly .

At present , there is NO any processor which is ONLY 32-bits . Not only the
Windows Server , if I am not remembering incorrectly , new regular Windows
( desk top , etc. ) versions will drop 32 bits branches : They only supply
64 bits versions .

By concentrating on 64 bits ( amd64 ) branch and work toward distributed
processing and high performance computing for super or clustered  computers
or graphics chips ( cards ) is much more useful than working on 32 bits
version .

Thank you very much .

Mehmet Erol Sanliturk