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32-bit x86 will be relevant for some time yet32-bit x86 will be relevant for some time yetPosted May 24, 2012 14:16 UTC (Thu) by Thue (subscriber, #14277)Parent article: Moving on
> perhaps two or three more release cycles, no more 32-bit x86 kernels built at all.
That would be a strange decision. In two or three more release cycles there will still be more (perhaps slightly old, but still quite usable) 32-bit x86 machines out there than most of the other architectures that Debian currently supports, such as MIPS, AI64, or Sparc.
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32-bit x86 will be relevant for some time yet Posted Jun 1, 2012 0:55 UTC (Fri) by BenHutchings (subscriber, #37955) [Link]
I don't think we need to decide at this point, or indeed more than one cycle in advance, that any particular release will be the last with i386. I'm not argue on what timescale is realistic. But I think that we should plan to have such a transitional stage for i386 (and maybe other 32-bit architectures that are succeeded by a 64-bit counterpart) before actually removing it.
32-bit x86 will be relevant for some time yet Posted Jun 1, 2012 18:02 UTC (Fri) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]
I'm not sure you can describe x86 as 'succeeded by' x86-64, really: there are still new designs being released which have only 32-bit x86 support (hello, Atom).
32-bit x86 will be relevant for some time yet Posted Jun 2, 2012 5:58 UTC (Sat) by Duncan (guest, #6647) [Link]
Indeed. I was an amd64 early adopter, and ia32 (kernel, anyway) really is legacy in some ways, but my only full computer purchase (I usually upgrade a piece at a time) this century was a gen-1.5 32-bit-only atom-based netbook, Acer Aspire One, 150L (L for Linux, I had to order it imported from Canada, but no way was I going to be an eXPrivacy statistic, even if I did buy it with the express intent of immediately sticking Gentoo on it) -- before they killed things with the all but Linux incompatible outsourced graphics.
It's still going strong! One of the first things I did was add a 1-gig stick of RAM to it, it's one of the first netbooks with a regular SATA interface and I chose the 120 gig "rotating rust" drive, but I still plan to upgrade that to either 128/256 gig SSD or 500 gig "rotating rust" at some point. I just replaced the battery for the second time a few weeks ago.
As TFA mentions, we /are/ talking Debian cycles, here, but still. If it weren't for netbooks, and likely x86 based touchpads at some point, x86 /was/ headed toward footnote territory, but that gave it a new lease on life and now I expect it to be with us for some time.
Meanwhile, not directly related but food for thought: A lot of touch-screen based retail cash registers are P4 or similar based, now, often running MS-DOS with memory extenders and TSR-based networking and touch-input stacks. Either android or more traditional linux could eventually take that, on either x86-32 or arm.
32-bit x86 will be relevant for some time yet Posted Jun 4, 2012 12:57 UTC (Mon) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]
Quite. In an ideal world I'd like for Atom to die and be replaced by ARM. Unfortunately that now apparently means that it would also come with a free signed boot that boots only Windows and that you can't override :(
32-bit x86 will be relevant for some time yet Posted Jun 6, 2012 19:47 UTC (Wed) by JanC_ (guest, #34940) [Link]
There's not only Intel's Atom, but also some embeded x86 SoC manufacturers like DM&P Electronics:
http://www.dmp.com.tw/
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