From owner-freebsd-alpha@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Aug 1 22:46:10 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 26C84106566C for ; Fri, 1 Aug 2008 22:46:10 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mailnull@mips.inka.de) Received: from mail-in-05.arcor-online.net (mail-in-05.arcor-online.net [151.189.21.45]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A53808FC1A for ; Fri, 1 Aug 2008 22:46:09 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mailnull@mips.inka.de) Received: from mail-in-17-z2.arcor-online.net (mail-in-17-z2.arcor-online.net [151.189.8.34]) by mail-in-05.arcor-online.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 15566183457 for ; Sat, 2 Aug 2008 00:46:08 +0200 (CEST) Received: from mail-in-09.arcor-online.net (mail-in-09.arcor-online.net [151.189.21.49]) by mail-in-17-z2.arcor-online.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 044BB45C0DF for ; Sat, 2 Aug 2008 00:46:08 +0200 (CEST) Received: from lorvorc.mips.inka.de (dslb-088-067-116-085.pools.arcor-ip.net [88.67.116.85]) by mail-in-09.arcor-online.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id D4DC33425E3 for ; Sat, 2 Aug 2008 00:46:07 +0200 (CEST) Received: from lorvorc.mips.inka.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by lorvorc.mips.inka.de (8.14.2/8.14.2) with ESMTP id m71Mk6Lc074596 for ; Sat, 2 Aug 2008 00:46:06 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from mailnull@lorvorc.mips.inka.de) Received: (from mailnull@localhost) by lorvorc.mips.inka.de (8.14.2/8.14.2/Submit) id m71Mk6hZ074595 for freebsd-alpha@freebsd.org; Sat, 2 Aug 2008 00:46:06 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from mailnull) From: naddy@mips.inka.de (Christian Weisgerber) Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2008 22:46:06 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: References: <20080731221015.GA35293@mech-cluster238.men.bris.ac.uk> Originator: naddy@mips.inka.de (Christian Weisgerber) To: freebsd-alpha@freebsd.org X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.93.3/7912/Fri Aug 1 22:16:14 2008 on mail-in-09.arcor-online.net X-Virus-Status: Clean 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 22:46:10 -0000 Anton Shterenlikht wrote: > I wonder how many people run FBSD on alpha. I did, until last weekend, when a hard disk died. FreeBSD 5.5 on an AlphaPC164. That machine held my e-mail/news setup, which I've since moved over to an amd64. > if the actual usage is indeed very small, it must be expected > that ports maintainers will stop supporting alpha soon. Your average ports maintainer has never supported alpha beyond accepting patches if you sent them any. > I'm trying to find out if there are people on this list, who, > like myself, are keen to see FBSD supported on alpha > for say 1-3 more years. FreeBSD/alpha is effectively dead. It is vestigially "supported" (= not intentionally damaged) in the 6.x branch. Meanwhile, actual progress on FreeBSD is happening in 8.0-CURRENT. Asking for _somebody_ to support alpha isn't going to accomplish anything. Either invest the work yourself or shut up. The people carrying the weight in FreeBSD development essentially gave up on alpha years ago when (or before) 6.0 was branched. I won't bother reinstalling FreeBSD 6 on my alpha. I might put OpenBSD on it, but then I already have an alpha running OpenBSD. Actually, as far as there are operating systems that still support alpha and are likely to continue doing to, OpenBSD might be your best choice. -- Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@mips.inka.de