From owner-freebsd-alpha@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Aug 1 15:08:36 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 B427A1065675 for ; Fri, 1 Aug 2008 15:08:36 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wb@freebie.xs4all.nl) Received: from smtp-vbr9.xs4all.nl (smtp-vbr9.xs4all.nl [194.109.24.29]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4BFB38FC14 for ; Fri, 1 Aug 2008 15:08:36 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wb@freebie.xs4all.nl) Received: from freebie.xs4all.nl (freebie.xs4all.nl [82.95.250.254]) by smtp-vbr9.xs4all.nl (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id m71F8YpF038235; Fri, 1 Aug 2008 17:08:34 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from wb@freebie.xs4all.nl) Received: from freebie.xs4all.nl (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by freebie.xs4all.nl (8.14.2/8.13.3) with ESMTP id m71F8XTt001533; Fri, 1 Aug 2008 17:08:33 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from wb@freebie.xs4all.nl) Received: (from wb@localhost) by freebie.xs4all.nl (8.14.2/8.14.2/Submit) id m71F8XUx001532; Fri, 1 Aug 2008 17:08:33 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from wb) Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2008 17:08:33 +0200 From: Wilko Bulte To: Dieter Message-ID: <20080801150833.GE1356@freebie.xs4all.nl> References: <20080731221015.GA35293@mech-cluster238.men.bris.ac.uk> <200808010530.FAA22725@sopwith.solgatos.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <200808010530.FAA22725@sopwith.solgatos.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.18 (2008-05-17) X-Virus-Scanned: by XS4ALL Virus Scanner 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 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 15:08:36 -0000 Quoting Dieter, who wrote on Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at 10:30:01PM +0100 .. > > I wonder how many people run FBSD on alpha. > > According to bsdstats.org very few - less than 5 boxes. > > There must be more. > > There are lots of BSD machines that bsdstats.org doesn't > know about. Indeed. > > 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. > > I might be interested in switching from Net to Free, but if > support is going away that would be a bad idea. 1-3 years In all reality FreeBSD on Alpha is with one foot in the grave. After FreeBSD-6.x goes EOL things are dead. It would have been better (read: it would have made survivability of the Alpha-port a lot better) if people had voiced their interest/support a bit earlier.. Regardless, it is water under the bridge now. > isn't very long. This is part of a larger problem. NetBSD > is also dropping support for arches. People don't want to > support things like uucp or usenet any more. Anything more > than 5 nanoseconds old just isn't considered cool. Even if > the replacements are far worse, which is often the case. > What are we supposed to do with older boxes? Some applications > that don't require the latest fast hardware, like firewalls, > still require support and security fixes. Throwing machines > into the landfill isn't very green. True. On the other hand, the power consumption of the average / current Alpha is not exactly green either. I am not running mine regularly, only when I build releases/snapshots. -- Wilko Bulte wilko@FreeBSD.org