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SubjectRe: "obsolete" hardware
On Tue, 10 Jun 1997, Trevor Jenkins wrote:

> > But I really see no reason to have 386 support (and I'd say drop
> > math emulation too so that people can use FP in the kernel) in the
> > 2.1.x and later kernels. None of the new features are really worth
> > implementing on such old hardware.
>
> This is a truly arrogant attitude worthy only of Microsoft---that
> you must have cutting-edge technology to run the latest version of
> some "product". One of the virutes of Linux has always been the
> support of obsolete hardware. Commerical UNIX vendors want their
> customers to upgrade to the latest hardware so as to be commerically
> viable but why must we follow suit?

Hear, hear! I know a guy who has executable code that was compiled on
VMS 1.x (on a VAX 11/780 'cuz that's all there was then) that still runs on
current equipment under VMS 6. You wouldn't want VMS-heads laughing at
us now, would you?

But maybe I missed something. What do we get in exchange for throwing
all those still-usable 386 systems in the trashcan?

Mark H. Wood, Lead System Programmer MWOOD@INDYVAX.IUPUI.EDU
Those who will not learn from history are doomed to reimplement it.


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