Am 28.09.2015 um 23:14 schrieb Ben Hutchings: > We propose to drop support for i386 processors older than 686-class in > the current release cycle. This would include folding libc6-i686 into > libc6, changing the default target for gcc, and changing the 586 kernel > flavour to 686 (non-PAE). > > Since the 686-class, introduced with the Pentium Pro, is now almost 20 > years old, we believe there are few Debian systems still running that > have 586-class or hybrid processors. The only such processors > apparently still available for sale are the DM&P Vortex86 family, Intel > Quark and Xeon Phi, of which we currently only support the Vortex86. > Indeed, the likely reasons for users to choose i386 over amd64 today > are to reduce memory consumption or to run i386 binaries for which the > source is not available - not because they're using 32-bit processors. > > The older processors would of course continue to be supported in jessie > until at least 2018, and until 2020 if i386 is included in jessie LTS. > > Maintaining support for these older processors hurts the Debian i386 > architecture in several ways: > * Prevents optimisation for 686-class without run-time checks or > multiple library builds > * Divergence from upstream code in various packages which often assume > at least 686-class processors > * Can require user intervention to install optimised library packages > e.g. debootstrap does not install libc6-i686 > > - Ben Hutchings > - Aurelien Jarno > - Matthias Klose
Your reasoning is sound. Please go ahead with your plan. We should not optimise for the least common denominator for eternity. Michael -- Why is it that all of the instruments seeking intelligent life in the universe are pointed away from Earth?
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