[cctalk] Old UNIX Systems

On Mon, 3 Jun 2013, Liam Proven wrote: That's not what I said. Linux is heavily used with i386 processors in embedded applications, and we still need the ability to maintain existing installations. Dropping support for the i386 from the mainline kernel means each company/person who needs to maintain such equipment (not generic "PCs") will have to either use an outdated kernel and/or patch it somehow. This again fractures the market even further and creates even more potential security flaws. So what if "desktop" Linux distributions don't care to support the i386 anymore ("That's old, just go buy a new PC")? The main target for the i386 these days is the embedded market. Having read the discussions that led up to the removal of the i386 code from the mainline Linux kernel, one of the main arguments was that no one used an i386 "PC" anymore and that none of the Linux distributions would even install on an actual i386 today. If the Linux kernel can support ARM, Alpha, Sparc, PPC, 68K, and multiple forms of x86 (plus many others) all from the same codebase, it makes no sense to chop out all support for the i386. Of course it also doesn't matter if an embedded system is using an i386, Geode, or ARM if we don't have suitably maintained software (and sourcecode) for it, such as what I pointed out with the HP PSAs that use the Geode GX1.