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Date:      Tue, 27 Jan 98 11:29:26 PST
From:      David Seifert <seifert@sequent.com>
To:        freebsd-alpha@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   FreeBSD/Alpha
Message-ID:  <199801271929.LAA25216@eng4.sequent.com>

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> The question for me remains more of "are there enough ALPHAs out there
> doing especially sexy things to justify keeping the port alive as a
> transition aid for the next 2-3 years?"

Is this all the FreeBSD'ers see Alpha as, a platform to use
for getting FreeBSD LP64 clean while waiting for merced, not
as an end in itself?  This makes it sound like FreeBSD is in
bed with intel?

Alpha is faster, better and cheaper than intel today, and
is very likely to be faster cheaper and better than merced
when merced finally comes out.

> The Linux people have been
> crowing for some time, for example, that the special effects for the
> movie "Titanic" were all done on a 150 processor Linux/ALPHA farm

This is the first big money project I've heard of that depended
on free software.  It says that free software is ready for prime
time.  I see this as a big deal, a serious feather in Linux's cap.

> Are these
> people worth trying to get on board just on the basis of what they're
> doing with the technology rather than just counting sheer numbers?

Most people doing free software are interested in creating the best
software they can, and aren't worried about market share.  This makes
it sound like FreeBSD is just the opposite.

NetBSD supports a platform (ns32532 based) of which less than 200 were
ever built.  Clearly they aren't worried about market share.

I want to run the best software on the best hardware.  The best
CPU today and for the forseeable future is Alpha.  I hear great things
about FreeBSD, but I can't try it because it doesn't support any of my
platforms.

-Dave



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