From owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Apr 1 05:50:41 2013 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D1BA1476; Mon, 1 Apr 2013 05:50:41 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from grog@lemis.com) Received: from w3.lemis.com (w3.lemis.com [208.86.224.149]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AC596C37; Mon, 1 Apr 2013 05:50:41 +0000 (UTC) Received: from eureka.lemis.com (1032.x.rootbsd.net [208.86.224.149]) by w3.lemis.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id DECE73B764; Mon, 1 Apr 2013 05:50:34 +0000 (UTC) Received: by eureka.lemis.com (Postfix, from userid 1004) id 7DB8AF74FA; Mon, 1 Apr 2013 16:50:31 +1100 (EST) Date: Mon, 1 Apr 2013 16:50:31 +1100 From: Greg 'groggy' Lehey To: Eitan Adler Subject: Re: considering i386 as a tier 1 architecture Message-ID: <20130401055031.GB47589@eureka.lemis.com> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="3lcZGd9BuhuYXNfi" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.3i Organization: The FreeBSD Project Phone: +61-3-5346-1370 Mobile: +61-418-838-708 WWW-Home-Page: http://www.FreeBSD.org/ X-PGP-Fingerprint: 9A1B 8202 BCCE B846 F92F 09AC 22E6 F290 507A 4223 Cc: FreeBSD Hackers , freebsd-arch@freebsd.org X-BeenThere: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion related to FreeBSD architecture List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 01 Apr 2013 05:50:41 -0000 --3lcZGd9BuhuYXNfi Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline On Monday, 1 April 2013 at 0:48:08 -0400, Eitan Adler wrote: > Hi, > > I am writing this email to discuss the i386 architecture in FreeBSD. > > Computers are getting faster, but also more memory intensive. I > can not find a laptop with less than 4 or 8 GB of RAM. Modern > browsers, such as Firefox, require a 64bit architecture and 8GB of > RAM. A 32 bit platform is not enough now a days on systems with > more than 4 GB of RAM. A 32 bit core now is like 640K of RAM in > the 1990s. Even in the embedded world ARM is going 64 bit with > ARMv8. > > Secondly, the i386 port is unmaintained. Very few developers run > it, so it doesn't get the testing it deserves. Almost every user > post or bug report I see from a x86 compatible processor is running > amd64. When was the last time you booted i386 outside a virtual > machine? Often times the build works for amd64 but fails for i386. > > Finally, others are dropping support for i386. Windows Server 2008 > is 64 bit only, OSX Mountain Lion (10.8) is 64-bit only. Users > and downstream vendors no longer care about preserving ancient > hardware. > > I hope this email is enough to convince you that on this date we > should drop support for the i386 architecture for 10.0 to tier 2 > and replace it with the ARM architecture as Tier 1. Nice one! And only 48 minutes into the day. I've seen a number of people take it seriously. Greg -- Sent from my desktop computer. Finger grog@FreeBSD.org for PGP public key. See complete headers for address and phone numbers. This message is digitally signed. If your Microsoft MUA reports problems, please read http://tinyurl.com/broken-mua --3lcZGd9BuhuYXNfi Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.19 (FreeBSD) iEYEARECAAYFAlFZICYACgkQIubykFB6QiPo5QCfbZklgxo/h4moVfwrzlmCDj3N yVwAnA2RsSCOqjI9Ot2NP8C9tdDfAKLd =eMP3 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --3lcZGd9BuhuYXNfi--