Deorbiting i386

[Cy Schubert]

In message <CAH7qZfsbGheNqnwNmkP5jYiE=FXzc65yZSBoX_mM+uNce9rhyQ at mail.gma
il.com>
, Maxim Sobolev writes:
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> The idea looks very inmature and short-sighted to me. i386 is here to stay
> not as a server/desktop platform but as an embedded/low power/low cost
> platform for at least 5-10 years to come. There are plenty of applications
> in the world that don't need > 3gb of memory space and have no use for
> extra bits (and extra silicon) to function. By quitting this space early
> FreeBSD is going to make itself unavailable for those applications. We are
> striving to support mips and the likes, with just tens of megabytes of
> memory and marginal at best adoption. Yet seriously discussing ditching out
> solid platform that has been our workforce for 20+ years??

How many newly developed embedded applications use i386? Most embedded 
applications I've seen in 2018 use ARM.

The original discussion point was to start considering it -- a roadmap 
(FreeBSD 14 or 15, or by 2023). 2038 is quickly approaching. The 
dominant O/S distros have by and large dropped or are working to 
deprecate it. When we break i386 few complain and even then not 
immediately. I don't think it's a large share of our market.

~cy

>
> -Max
>
> On Thu, May 24, 2018, 5:40 PM Mark Linimon <linimon at lonesome.com> wrote:
>
> > On Thu, May 24, 2018 at 12:22:37PM -0700, Matthew Macy wrote:
> > > All you need to know about sparc64 vitality is that HEAD didn't boot
> > > for 3 months until last week.
> >
> > All you need to know is that -11 works fine, but, after so much drama
> > from various places, I haven't even bothered upgrading any of my machines
> > to 12.
> >
> > mcl
> >
> >
>
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> <div dir=3D"auto">The idea looks very inmature and short-sighted to me. i38=
> 6 is here to stay not as a server/desktop platform but as an embedded/low p=
> ower/low cost platform for at least 5-10 years to come. There are plenty of=
>  applications in the world that don't need > 3gb of memory space and=
>  have no use for extra bits (and extra silicon) to function. By quitting th=
> is space early FreeBSD is going to make itself unavailable for those applic=
> ations. We are striving to support mips and the likes, with just tens of me=
> gabytes of memory and marginal at best adoption. Yet seriously discussing d=
> itching out solid platform that has been our workforce for 20+ years??=C2=
> =A0<div dir=3D"auto"><br></div><div dir=3D"auto">-Max</div></div><br><div c=
> lass=3D"gmail_quote"><div dir=3D"ltr">On Thu, May 24, 2018, 5:40 PM Mark Li=
> nimon <<a href=3D"mailto:linimon at lonesome.com">linimon at lonesome.com</a>&=
> gt; wrote:<br></div><blockquote class=3D"gmail_quote" style=3D"margin:0 0 0=
>  .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">On Thu, May 24, 2018 at =
> 12:22:37PM -0700, Matthew Macy wrote:<br>
> > All you need to know about sparc64 vitality is that HEAD didn't bo=
> ot<br>
> > for 3 months until last week.<br>
> <br>
> All you need to know is that -11 works fine, but, after so much drama<br>
> from various places, I haven't even bothered upgrading any of my machin=
> es<br>
> to 12.<br>
> <br>
> mcl<br>
> <br>
> </blockquote></div>
>
> --00000000000046c92e056d00305f--

-- 
Cheers,
Cy Schubert <Cy.Schubert at cschubert.com>
FreeBSD UNIX:  <cy at FreeBSD.org>   Web:  http://www.FreeBSD.org

	The need of the many outweighs the greed of the few.