Date: Wed, 9 Dec 1998 09:47:26 -0800 From: "David O'Brien" <obrien@NUXI.com> To: Alfred Perlstein <bright@hotjobs.com>, Paolo Di Francesco <paipai@tin.it> Cc: freebsd-sparc@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Read this... Message-ID: <19981209094726.R18642@nuxi.com> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.05.9812091208090.27793-100000@bright.fx.genx.net>; from Alfred Perlstein on Wed, Dec 09, 1998 at 12:10:31PM -0500 References: <19981209162952.EKNG23290.fep02-svc@winworkstation> <Pine.BSF.4.05.9812091208090.27793-100000@bright.fx.genx.net>
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> > http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,29695,00.html > > Can someone tell Sun to support us? 8) > > Hopefully they'll see the light soon enough. Not unless they actually hear from *us* and others. The Linux fanatics foam at the mouth and scream at (if not demand) vendors to support them. Has anyone that is capable of making real progress contacted Sun to ask for a development machine? Sun offered Jordan 2-3 Ultra machines 1-1.5 years ago to use in porting FreeBSD to the Ultra. Jordan turned them down, saying that FreeBSD wasn't interested [at the time] unless Sun also gave some $$ to support maintenance of the port once it was done. At the time there didn't seem to be any/many FreeBSD developers interested in the Sparc. And the idea of making the Ports Collection run on the Sparc is a very scarry thought. We have yet to see just how well we will support the Alphas. Because of Jordan's/FreeBSD's response, Sun then decided to have one of their own port FreeBSD to the Ultra. This is where Jason Evans <jasone@canonware.com>. To quote one of Jason's emails: As has been alluded to in some of Jordan Hubbard's email, Sun Microelectronics (SME, the processor division of Sun) recently discussed paying FreeBSD core to officially support a port of FreeBSD to SPARC. These plans fell through in some way (I wasn't part of the discussion, so I don't know details), but SME is having me work on the port. -and- A while back, SME approached FreeBSD core and offered monetary compensation of some nature (I don't know the details) in exchange for an official UltraSPARC port. FreeBSD core turned down this offer. Once again, I don't know details, but one of the main statements made (actually somewhat inferred) by Jordan Hubbard was that SME's offer was not of major interest since to be of long term use to FreeBSD, such a proposal would need to include support for a number of years from someone internal to Sun. There is no reason we can't, provided someone is prepared to spear head it, ask Sun for a simular offer. -- -- David (obrien@NUXI.ucdavis.edu -or- obrien@FreeBSD.org) To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-sparc" in the body of the message
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