Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Sat, 15 Jan 2011 00:58:33 -0600
From:      Ade Lovett <ade@FreeBSD.org>
To:        Marcel Moolenaar <xcllnt@mac.com>
Cc:        freebsd-current@freebsd.org, freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   Re: BSDInstall: merging to HEAD
Message-ID:  <E173EC03-1A94-493B-A70F-D5171CCCCB33@FreeBSD.org>
In-Reply-To: <7029F1A3-87A2-4203-840C-48B712EA70B8@mac.com>
References:  <4D309563.1000404@freebsd.org> <7029F1A3-87A2-4203-840C-48B712EA70B8@mac.com>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help

On Jan 14, 2011, at 19:31 , Marcel Moolenaar wrote:
> On Jan 14, 2011, at 10:26 AM, Nathan Whitehorn wrote:
>=20
>> The final architecture on which we use sysinstall, ia64, is currently =
unsupported, because I don't know how to set up booting on those systems =
-- patches to solve this are very much welcome.
>=20
> Don't let this stop you. I'll work with you on this after the dust
> has settled.

Just out of random curiosity.  Seriously.

Exactly why, short of "of course it runs", in which case NetBSD is --> =
way, why are we even trying to handle ia64 as a platform, regardless of =
tier, when it is patently obvious that it is going absolutely _nowhere_ =
in terms of a viable platform?

I ask the question in all seriousness.   Ports/Packages, well, a decent =
amount of them won't work on anything less than (i386|amd64) but that's =
nothing new.  But even spending time building them for, what, the <200 =
(I'm being generous) folks that run FreeBSD/ia64.

We _have_ a 64-bit platform.  It's /amd.  The fact that even as we =
speak, random chip manufacturers are banging out new P4/Xeon processors =
conforming to this standard, years after they had a vague chance to =
steal the server market, indicates that this line is dead. _dead_. DEAD.

At least I can pick up a box for <$50 from ebay and run /sparc64 on it.  =
Say the same for /ia64?  Didn't think so.

Nuke it.  =46rom orbit.  With extreme prejudice.

-aDe




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?E173EC03-1A94-493B-A70F-D5171CCCCB33>