From owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Jun 6 00:57:37 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 936A237B401 for ; Fri, 6 Jun 2003 00:57:37 -0700 (PDT) Received: from puffin.mail.pas.earthlink.net (puffin.mail.pas.earthlink.net [207.217.120.139]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0B4D643F93 for ; Fri, 6 Jun 2003 00:57:37 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from tlambert2@mindspring.com) Received: from user-38lc0sj.dialup.mindspring.com ([209.86.3.147] helo=mindspring.com) by puffin.mail.pas.earthlink.net with asmtp (SSLv3:RC4-MD5:128) (Exim 3.33 #1) id 19OC6M-0003DG-00; Fri, 06 Jun 2003 00:57:30 -0700 Message-ID: <3EE04920.7B8EA51F@mindspring.com> Date: Fri, 06 Jun 2003 00:56:16 -0700 From: Terry Lambert X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.79 [en] (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Rahul Siddharthan References: <20030605165217.A388@online.fr> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-ELNK-Trace: b1a02af9316fbb217a47c185c03b154d40683398e744b8a4b9b5d59b6aeca1756f3d2a987cd40817a7ce0e8f8d31aa3f350badd9bab72f9c350badd9bab72f9c cc: chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Peeve: why "i386"? X-BeenThere: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Non technical items related to the community List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 06 Jun 2003 07:57:37 -0000 Rahul Siddharthan wrote: > Why do all the BSDs continue to refer to the 32 bit Intel architecture > as i386 even when they typically won't even install on an i386 any > more? Why not call it x86, or ia32, if not in the kernel config then > at least in the release notes and documentation, as everyone else has > been doing for years? I believe the primary reason is the directories named "i386" in various places that, were they renamed, would require a repo-copy in order to maintain proper modification history information, and would additionally require Attic'ing in their current location under their current names to permit the building of historical releases from the release tags. People tend to oppose such changes on general principles, and on the adding of hours to a CVSup time over a 28K modem in Eastern Slobovia. Basically, rewriting history is hard, and the ability to recreate FreeBSD-3.2-RELEASE any time you want to is a compelling argument that someone would have to eat some undesirable overhead, merely to get a name changed, with no real technical benefit. It's kind of like changing the Daemon mascot to something else... -- Terry