From owner-freebsd-alpha@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Aug 1 09:49:37 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 C26A6106566B for ; Fri, 1 Aug 2008 09:49:37 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from macgyver@calibre-solutions.co.uk) Received: from mail.calibre-solutions.co.uk (mail.calibre-solutions.co.uk [217.79.104.52]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 750F88FC2C for ; Fri, 1 Aug 2008 09:49:37 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from macgyver@calibre-solutions.co.uk) Received: from webmail.calibre-solutions.co.uk (unknown [172.16.2.21]) by mail.calibre-solutions.co.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5745A33C5B; Fri, 1 Aug 2008 09:34:25 +0000 (UTC) Received: from 193.131.192.95 (SquirrelMail authenticated user macgyver) by webmail.calibre-solutions.co.uk with HTTP; Fri, 1 Aug 2008 09:34:25 -0000 (UTC) Message-ID: In-Reply-To: References: Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2008 09:34:25 -0000 (UTC) From: "Angus MacGyver" To: "Gheorghe Ardelean" User-Agent: SquirrelMail/1.4.15 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Importance: Normal Cc: freebsd-alpha@freebsd.org Subject: Re: future for FBSD on alpha X-BeenThere: freebsd-alpha@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: macgyver@calibre-solutions.co.uk 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 09:49:37 -0000 On Fri, August 1, 2008 00:06, Gheorghe Ardelean wrote: > > Hi, > > On Thu, 31 Jul 2008, Anton Shterenlikht wrote: > >> I wonder how many people run FBSD on alpha. >> According to bsdstats.org very few - less than 5 boxes. >> There must be more. > > Yes, there are more. I have 5 running 6.3 Release (AlphaPC64, AlphaPC164, > 2x AXPpci33 w/custom kernel, PWS 433au). Indeed more - I counted 15 on there (remembering to look at all possible flavours - Digital etc) FBSD on AXP architecture has been the most stable, bombproof system I have ever run. (always custom kernel, and upto 4 Jails per physical machine) It is a great shame that Compaq and HP mis-managed this architecture to the point of obselesence - totally criminal IMHO. >> 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. If yes, we might be able to lobby >> ports maintainers not to drop support for alpha ports. If FBSD hasn't announced EOL - then I would still be running it on AXP - at least until the hardware gave out (and I had 5 machines as well - 2x LX164 and 3x SX164 - so that could have been quite some time) As it was - I (only just) migrated to x86 kit (at least it's low power!) to make sure my production kit wasn't adversely affected by quality or security issues when the ports started to falter. > > Having us testing will help the port maintainers a lot. Whilst I would support testing - I personally have fairly limited time to build and test now - and quite a lot of sysadmins I know are in the same boat. If there are enough people to do this - then it might just work. The we must do - if this is going to go ahead, - is to make reasonable decisions about what ports are the "most wanted" - say apache22 and mysql for example - and not "care" about something like "joe" (I just use these as examples - after all one can use a different editor - but a different webserver or DB is another matter) just my $0.02 > Best regards, AM