From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.0 (2014-02-07) on aws-us-west-2-korg-lkml-1.web.codeaurora.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.8 required=3.0 tests=BAYES_00, HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS,MAILING_LIST_MULTI,SPF_HELO_NONE,SPF_PASS autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.0 Received: from mail.kernel.org (mail.kernel.org [198.145.29.99]) by smtp.lore.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 17A22C43331 for ; Wed, 13 Jan 2021 00:49:45 +0000 (UTC) Received: from vger.kernel.org (vger.kernel.org [23.128.96.18]) by mail.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E62EA22CAD for ; Wed, 13 Jan 2021 00:49:44 +0000 (UTC) Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S2391670AbhAMAnE (ORCPT ); Tue, 12 Jan 2021 19:43:04 -0500 Received: from kvm5.telegraphics.com.au ([98.124.60.144]:39420 "EHLO kvm5.telegraphics.com.au" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S2392251AbhAMAM4 (ORCPT ); Tue, 12 Jan 2021 19:12:56 -0500 Received: from localhost (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by kvm5.telegraphics.com.au (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3DD552B776; Tue, 12 Jan 2021 19:12:12 -0500 (EST) Date: Wed, 13 Jan 2021 11:12:06 +1100 (AEDT) From: Finn Thain To: John Paul Adrian Glaubitz cc: Gerhard Pircher , Arnd Bergmann , Linux Kernel Mailing List , linux-m68k , Sparc kernel list , Linux-sh list Subject: Old platforms never die, was Re: Old platforms: bring out your dead In-Reply-To: Message-ID: References: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Tue, 12 Jan 2021, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote: > > There has to be a healthy balance between hobbyist and commercial use. > Yes, both of those, and everything in-between, including for-profit businesses that serve mostly hobbyists. Also start-up companies that may never be commercially viable (which is most of them). And don't forget government and non-government organisations, not-for-profit organisations, charities, etc. > I understand that from a commercial point of view, it doesn't make much > sense to run Linux on a 30-year-old computer. It ain't necessarily so. I would be surprised if there are no Linux VMs running on old corporate mainframes right now. But the age of the hardware is largely irrelevant. If you're a museum interested in cultural artifacts from decades past, or if you're a business doing data recovery, you're going to need to operate those platforms. Once removed from mainline Linux, a port becomes basically frozen, and may not be compatible with future emulators, which are a moving target. I say that because last year I fixed bugs in Linux/m68k that made it incomatible with recent QEMU releases (it was only compatible with old QEMU releases).