Date: Mon, 1 Apr 2013 08:53:36 +0300 From: Kimmo Paasiala <kpaasial@gmail.com> To: "Greg 'groggy' Lehey" <grog@freebsd.org> Cc: Eitan Adler <lists@eitanadler.com>, freebsd-arch@freebsd.org, FreeBSD Hackers <freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: considering i386 as a tier 1 architecture Message-ID: <CA%2B7WWSfzGVW_fneL6N%2B0G%2B-zY23=kgLVcE_J%2BqZmL2b18RqMaA@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <20130401055031.GB47589@eureka.lemis.com> References: <CAF6rxgnYOwAPnpykTAN-Eu=oeee_uBMt1ud8U4RpyKLO5S257Q@mail.gmail.com> <20130401055031.GB47589@eureka.lemis.com>
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On Mon, Apr 1, 2013 at 8:50 AM, Greg 'groggy' Lehey <grog@freebsd.org> wrote: > 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 > -- > Oh crap :P However, this discussion will not be out of place some day, may be 2 or 3 years and practicly everything will be 64-bits. -Kimmo
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