On Thu, Aug 23, 2012 at 1:22 PM, wbrana <wbr...@gmail.com> wrote: > x86-32 > - is deprecated since Linux supports X32. > - will slow down adoption of X32 - there won't be X32 versions of many > software - if new ABI was added, old one should be removed
You misunderstand what the X32 ABI is. It's 64-bit code (allowing use of the extended register set) that uses 32-bit pointers to save memory. It has nothing to do with 32-bit kernels, and is completely optional. > - wastes time of developers who can spend their time supporting X32 > instead of x86-32 or support x86-64 only as 99% of users will be able > to run x86-64 software if x86-32 will be dropped The x86-32 arch is mature and well maintained, and shares so much in common with x86-64, that there is little to be gained by dropping kernel support. > - wouldn't be dropped this year, but there should be plan when it will > be dropped e.g. when Windows 9 will be released Windows mostly sells with new hardware, and by the time win9 is released all new hardware designed for it will be 64-bit capable. Therefore it is not *profitable* for Microsoft to continue to develop a 32-bit version. That doesn't apply to Linux. Linux is installed on a broad range of hardware, new and old. In general, we don't drop support for hardware unless there is nobody willing to maintain it. -- Brian Gerst -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majord...@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
