From owner-freebsd-alpha@FreeBSD.ORG Thu May 11 23:00:50 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 AF26616A587; Thu, 11 May 2006 23:00:50 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from oberman@es.net) Received: from postal2.es.net (postal2.es.net [198.128.3.206]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E22544406A; Thu, 11 May 2006 22:30:40 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from oberman@es.net) Received: from ptavv.es.net ([198.128.4.29]) by postal2.es.net (Postal Node 2) with ESMTP (SSL) id IBA74465; Thu, 11 May 2006 15:30:35 -0700 Received: from ptavv.es.net (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ptavv.es.net (Tachyon Server) with ESMTP id 189F545053; Thu, 11 May 2006 15:30:35 -0700 (PDT) To: John Baldwin In-reply-to: Your message of "Thu, 11 May 2006 14:24:03 EDT." <200605111424.04935.jhb@freebsd.org> Date: Thu, 11 May 2006 15:30:35 -0700 From: "Kevin Oberman" Message-Id: <20060511223035.189F545053@ptavv.es.net> Cc: alpha@freebsd.org, current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: 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 23:01:13 -0000 > From: John Baldwin > Date: Thu, 11 May 2006 14:24:03 -0400 > Sender: owner-freebsd-current@freebsd.org > > 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. I'd say to was killed by its owner. It's creator (corporate) no longer exists and its creators (designers) are very sad at its demise. It was an amazing design for its time and could have been a powerful force in hardware with anything that resembled reasonable marketing. (Sorry for the digression. The Alpha was very dear to me and, while not a designer, I knew some of them.) -- R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) E-mail: oberman@es.net Phone: +1 510 486-8634