On 9/27/2012 10:07 AM, Jochen Spieker wrote: > Tony Baldwin: >> On Tue, Sep 25, 2012 at 09:33:45AM +0200, Helmut Wollmersdorfer wrote: >>> >>> I also had to find the answer for 'IA64 or AMD64?'. AFAIR I used >>> google and then I grepped /proc/cpuinfo for 'lm'. >> >> Isn't this just a question of whether you have a Pentium/Intel 64bit >> processor, or an AMD64? > > No, it isn't. And I am sure this exact misconception has already been > resolved in this very thread.
Yes, it was, very early, by yours truly. The only permanent solution to this confusion is for Debian to rename the IA64 port to "Itanium" and rename the AMD64 port to something like "AMDINTL64". The conventions Debian uses are based on the microarchitecture names, which back in the day worked fine and were self explanatory: i386, IA64, 680x0, MIPS, ALPHA, SPARC, PPC, etc. But when AMD released the x86-64 architecture in 2002, and Intel copied it, creating two 64 bit chip families from Intel, the old naming convention fell apart, as many laypeople can't make sense of it. Granted the number of people unable/unwilling to figure this out on their own is rather small, so those in charge simply haven't addressed the issue. Given how often this question is asked, I think changes should be made to fix this. Maybe we could start some kind of petition for "Itanium" and "AMDINTL64". I think these tell everyone at a glance what they need to know when selecting a port, and would completely eliminate the confusion. -- Stan -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/50654545.50...@hardwarefreak.com
