From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1758930Ab2HXR2r (ORCPT ); Fri, 24 Aug 2012 13:28:47 -0400 Received: from mail-wi0-f172.google.com ([209.85.212.172]:63098 "EHLO mail-wi0-f172.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1754155Ab2HXR2n (ORCPT ); Fri, 24 Aug 2012 13:28:43 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: References: <201208241814.16862.tweek@tweek.dk> <5037AAB0.6040102@genband.com> <201208241854.45656.tweek@tweek.dk> Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2012 13:28:41 -0400 Message-ID: Subject: Re: Drop support for x86-32 From: Brian Gerst To: wbrana Cc: Martin Nybo Andersen , Chris Friesen , Bernd Petrovitsch , Ondrej Zary , linux-kernel Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Fri, Aug 24, 2012 at 1:05 PM, wbrana wrote: > On 8/24/12, Martin Nybo Andersen wrote: >> What I'd hate even more is rendering my old working hardware useless by >> removing x86-32 support from the kernel. To reason the removal by saying >> "Microsoft plans to do it" just makes me go bonkers... > Your old hardware will work fine with long term kernel. You still don't get it. Forget your "long term kernel" fantasy. That is not what they are intended for. They are to provide a stable kernel for the lifetime of a major (usually enterprise) distribution. They provide security and bug fixes without the churn associated with major releases. There is absolutely no reason to remove support for hardware from Linux unless nobody is willing to maintain it. As I said before, there is so much more in common between x86-32 and x86-64 than there is different, that x86-32 specific maintenance is almost nil. I haven't seen any patches from you, so your opinions about the maintenance burden don't carry much weight, versus those of people who are contributors. -- Brian Gerst