Date: Mon, 1 Apr 2013 16:50:31 +1100 From: Greg 'groggy' Lehey <grog@FreeBSD.org> To: Eitan Adler <lists@eitanadler.com> Cc: FreeBSD Hackers <freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org>, freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Subject: Re: considering i386 as a tier 1 architecture Message-ID: <20130401055031.GB47589@eureka.lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <CAF6rxgnYOwAPnpykTAN-Eu=oeee_uBMt1ud8U4RpyKLO5S257Q@mail.gmail.com> References: <CAF6rxgnYOwAPnpykTAN-Eu=oeee_uBMt1ud8U4RpyKLO5S257Q@mail.gmail.com>
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--3lcZGd9BuhuYXNfi Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline 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 -- Sent from my desktop computer. Finger grog@FreeBSD.org for PGP public key. See complete headers for address and phone numbers. This message is digitally signed. If your Microsoft MUA reports problems, please read http://tinyurl.com/broken-mua --3lcZGd9BuhuYXNfi Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.19 (FreeBSD) iEYEARECAAYFAlFZICYACgkQIubykFB6QiPo5QCfbZklgxo/h4moVfwrzlmCDj3N yVwAnA2RsSCOqjI9Ot2NP8C9tdDfAKLd =eMP3 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --3lcZGd9BuhuYXNfi--
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