From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Apr 6 21:57:28 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D72FA16A403 for ; Fri, 6 Apr 2007 21:57:28 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from imp@bsdimp.com) Received: from harmony.bsdimp.com (vc4-2-0-87.dsl.netrack.net [199.45.160.85]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 76BC513C484 for ; Fri, 6 Apr 2007 21:57:28 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from imp@bsdimp.com) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by harmony.bsdimp.com (8.13.8/8.13.4) with ESMTP id l36LsaNs006282; Fri, 6 Apr 2007 15:54:37 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from imp@bsdimp.com) Date: Fri, 06 Apr 2007 15:54:44 -0600 (MDT) Message-Id: <20070406.155444.255407280.imp@bsdimp.com> To: nikolas.britton@gmail.com From: "M. Warner Losh" In-Reply-To: References: <20070406203642.GA75672@troutmask.apl.washington.edu> X-Mailer: Mew version 4.2 on Emacs 21.3 / Mule 5.0 (SAKAKI) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-2.0 (harmony.bsdimp.com [127.0.0.1]); Fri, 06 Apr 2007 15:54:38 -0600 (MDT) Cc: keramida@ceid.upatras.gr, peterjeremy@optushome.com.au, freebsd-current@freebsd.org, sgk@troutmask.apl.washington.edu Subject: Re: Do we need this junk? X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 06 Apr 2007 21:57:28 -0000 In message: "Nikolas Britton" writes: : On 4/6/07, Steve Kargl wrote: : > On Fri, Apr 06, 2007 at 03:25:24PM -0500, Nikolas Britton wrote: : > > On 4/6/07, Steve Kargl wrote: : > > >On Fri, Apr 06, 2007 at 03:06:20PM -0500, Nikolas Britton wrote: : > > >> : > > >> I only suggested dropping PC98. Why? If you look at the PC98 page* it : > > >> hasn't been updated since FreeBSD 4.11 and bsdstats.org shows zero : > > >> people using it... PC98 is a dead platform like Alpha and Alpha : > > >> support is being dropped for FreeBSD 7, but if you look at : > > >> bsdstats.org the Alpha platform has more users than sparc, powerpc and : > > >> pc98 combined!! : > > > : > > >pc98 appears to be popular in Japan. See : > > >http://people.freebsd.org/~kato/pc98.html : > > > : > > >Alpha died because the chip maker stopped : > > >making chips. : > > > : > > : > > NEC stopped making PC98 system in 1997!!! : > : > That's odd. See NEC's press release dated 23 OCT 97 : > concerning a new series of PC98-NX : > : > http://www.nec.co.jp/press/en/9710/2301.html : > : : "The PC-9801's last successor is the Celeron-based PC-9821Ra43 (with a : clockspeed 433MHz), which appeared in 2000" -Wikipedia Ok I was off : by 3 years, but it's still been dead longer than Alpha. Actaully, it wasn't until around 2005 that NEC stopped making NEC-PC9821xxx machines and machine parts. They did so to support the installed base of these machines. I have a PC9821Ra in my garage, as a matter of fact (I'm only blessed with 400MHz). It is my LAN media server. The PC98-NX is a wintel compatible machine that has only PC98 brand-name because it is so popular in Japan. Up until recently, pc98 was the second most popular platform that FreeBSD had. I don't have recent data (the info I have is from 2003), but suspect that it has slipped to third behind amd64. Telling all these long-term die-hard users, who helped to build FreeBSD popularity in Japan to take a hike would be very damaging to the project. Warner