From owner-freebsd-alpha@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Aug 1 17:02:29 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-alpha@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B40CC10657CF for ; Fri, 1 Aug 2008 17:02:28 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from macgyver@calibre-solutions.co.uk) Received: from mail.calibre-solutions.co.uk (mail.calibre-solutions.co.uk [217.79.104.52]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7517A8FC22 for ; Fri, 1 Aug 2008 17:02:28 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from macgyver@calibre-solutions.co.uk) Received: from vmx.calibre-solutions.co.uk (coruscant.calibre-solutions.co.uk [172.16.1.1]) by mail.calibre-solutions.co.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8072033CA3; Fri, 1 Aug 2008 17:02:27 +0000 (UTC) Received: from [172.16.1.29] (unknown [172.16.1.29]) by vmx.calibre-solutions.co.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id 804F5AF919; Fri, 1 Aug 2008 18:02:27 +0100 (BST) From: Angus MacGyver To: Anton Shterenlikht In-Reply-To: <20080801153556.GA83312@mech-cluster238.men.bris.ac.uk> References: <20080731221015.GA35293@mech-cluster238.men.bris.ac.uk> <8F8C8CFE62002A4EB82EE1CE9F2ED7D40ECACD@depot.AxxisCorp.local> <20080731223325.GA35980@mech-cluster238.men.bris.ac.uk> <8F8C8CFE62002A4EB82EE1CE9F2ED7D40ECAD0@depot.AxxisCorp.local> <20080801153556.GA83312@mech-cluster238.men.bris.ac.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Date: Fri, 01 Aug 2008 18:02:27 +0100 Message-Id: <1217610147.8664.37.camel@executor> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.22.3.1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Cc: freebsd-alpha@freebsd.org Subject: Re: future for FBSD on alpha X-BeenThere: freebsd-alpha@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting FreeBSD to the Alpha List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 01 Aug 2008 17:02:29 -0000 On Fri, 2008-08-01 at 16:35 +0100, Anton Shterenlikht wrote: On Fri, Aug 01, 2008 at 10:20:51AM -0500, Richard J. Valenta wrote: > I am not familiar with bsdstats at all... > My interest is in lobbying fbsd management team not to drop alpha > support by showing a large number of live fbsd alpha systems. At present > the numbers are so low that even RELENG_6 support might stop soon. > If more people participated and a more realistic (read higher) number > of alpha boxes appeared, perhaps we could prolong the life of fbsd on alpha. > However, I agree with Wilko, fbsd on alpha is half dead. > > anton >  bsdstats - Neither was I. Not something that has exactly jumped out at me when installing at any point - unlike say other platforms (/methinks suse/ubuntu/fedora - let alone M$) Perhaps if that had been the case - more people would have known about it and participated and this situation may have bought the platform more time. - again as Wilko said - water under bridge :( /me fires up current BSD boxes to do just that - pity it's for a VIA C7 But as with anything open source - it never really dies - there is nothing to stop people interested enough, taking that code and continuing the work - should they choose to do so. (ignoring actually the part of doing it) Ditto with the vast majority of software that is run on the systems. Now - I'm not as familiar with the whole FBSD project "heirachy" or nooks and crannies of the BSD license - nor am I familiar enough about such issues as "forking" - but if pressure is enough - people do actually take on these sort of things. (I'm intentionally skipping if this would be a good idea etc. - I'm pointing out what is hard^H^H^H^H possible.) Let's face it - due to the age of the AXP platform - what else "new" would anyone want into the kernel for example ? Maybe better SMP - but I'd suggest that it's not like there is much else hardware wise that we would be putting into these machines is it ? That would/could remain fairly static. Security fixes is another matter however ...... I was going to mention alphacore - a Fedora Linux for Alpha - but then saw looked rather dead until i came across .. http://alphacore.info/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1785 OK- it ain't FBSD - but - might prolong those systems for a bit longer ??? again - my ~$0.04 (at today's exchange rate :-/ ) AM