From owner-freebsd-alpha@FreeBSD.ORG Thu May 11 18:59:36 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: alpha@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-alpha@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5FEE916AA7B; Thu, 11 May 2006 18:59:36 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jhb@freebsd.org) Received: from server.baldwin.cx (66-23-211-162.clients.speedfactory.net [66.23.211.162]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DCA3743E16; Thu, 11 May 2006 18:59:35 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from jhb@freebsd.org) Received: from localhost (john@localhost [127.0.0.1]) (authenticated bits=0) by server.baldwin.cx (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k4BIxVpq045170; Thu, 11 May 2006 14:59:33 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from jhb@freebsd.org) From: John Baldwin To: alpha@freebsd.org Date: Thu, 11 May 2006 14:24:03 -0400 User-Agent: KMail/1.9.1 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: <200605111424.04935.jhb@freebsd.org> X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.87.1/1456/Thu May 11 01:57:31 2006 on server.baldwin.cx X-Virus-Status: Clean X-Spam-Status: No, score=-4.4 required=4.2 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.1.0 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.0 (2005-09-13) on server.baldwin.cx Cc: current@freebsd.org Subject: HEADSUP: Alpha support is being retired in 7.0 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: Thu, 11 May 2006 18:59:41 -0000 Alpha was the first non-x86 port that was added to FreeBSD, and as such it has greatly aided the efforts to keep FreeBSD from being too i386-centric. However, recently the Alpha port has not had any active development or maintenance. As a result, the quality of the Alpha releases that the Project provides are not on par with other supported architectures and is in fact degrading. Unfortunately, as an architecture it has also been killed by its creator. After considering all of this, it is time to part with Alpha for 7.0 and beyond. At this time it is still planned to provide 6.x releases for FreeBSD/alpha. The code will still be around in CVS history if someone suddenly shows up and fixes a bunch of bugs and/or the architecture is revived. Users with Alpha systems are welcome to use existing releases of FreeBSD/alpha or another BSD such as NetBSD/alpha. We would still like to see bug fixes for FreeBSD/alpha on 6.x so that the final release is solid. -- John Baldwin <>< http://www.FreeBSD.org/~jhb/ "Power Users Use the Power to Serve" = http://www.FreeBSD.org