Seven open source OS distributions for 64-bit processors (NewsForge)
Posted Oct 14, 2003 19:37 UTC (Tue)
by jimi (guest, #6655)
[Link] (1 responses)
Posted Oct 15, 2003 8:05 UTC (Wed)
by cate (subscriber, #1359)
[Link]
It seems simple to compile a program for an other architecture, but than you will discover that a lot of program are not so well (portable) written. They use or assume some special features, that not generally (or posixly) true, ore they are simply wrong written, but they casually works on 32-bit architectures (i.e. int, long, size_t mixtures) An other problem is the encoding of binary data (db, images, mp3,...). You should modify the programs so that you can read binary data with 32 and 64 bit architectures, with the differend endiannes. Least but I think one of the important problem: the compiler. Also with gcc for i386 we have some problems, i.e. kernel or some programs don't compile with some new compilers... so now immagine what do the compiler with a not so popular architecture! So the recompiling and the test/correct the program is not so easy as it can seems, but it help also the popular architectures, on correcting bugs
Posted Oct 14, 2003 19:51 UTC (Tue)
by ber (subscriber, #2142)
[Link] (2 responses)
Posted Oct 14, 2003 20:27 UTC (Tue)
by davidl (guest, #12156)
[Link] (1 responses)
As long as they don't attempt to change the nature of the underlying software and keep it secret (which they can't) I don't see it as a threat.
Posted Oct 15, 2003 14:48 UTC (Wed)
by ber (subscriber, #2142)
[Link]
Posted Oct 15, 2003 0:05 UTC (Wed)
by dlang (guest, #313)
[Link]
Posted Oct 15, 2003 5:23 UTC (Wed)
by mmealman (guest, #9223)
[Link] (1 responses)
http://dev.gentoo.org/~brad_mssw/amd64-tech-notes.html
Posted Oct 15, 2003 12:59 UTC (Wed)
by evgeny (subscriber, #774)
[Link]
Anyone know what is involved in making a distribution 64-bit ready? Is it a simple matter of recompiling with the right arguments? Or are massive patches to glibc needed?
Seven open source OS distributions for 64-bit processors (NewsForge)
Seven open source OS distributions for 64-bit processors (NewsForge)
Because of the license of yast2, Suse does not really qualify
as a Free Software distribution. To my knowledge with all other mentioned distributions
you can use the freedom if you like and take it as a base for your own
commercial or uncommercial distribution. Yast's license prohibits that.
It is legal what they do, but that does not mean we cannot call
that business attitude what it is: unfair.
Suse not a Free Software distribution.
Well, I don't think it is fair to assume that everything is Open Sourced in some way. As long as Suse use standard free software as a basis and develop their YAST2 on the top then that's fine and really shouldn't matter.Suse not a Free Software distribution.
It matters because yast2 is a core part of the system,
not a freedom substracting add-on like other distributions have
frequently. The difference is substaincial, journalists should know
it so they can inform and help us make an informed decision.
Suse not a Free Software distribution.
the headline is misleading, these 7 distros support SOME 64 bit processors, not all of them support the AMD 64 bit processors
Seven open source OS distributions for 64-bit processors (NewsForge)
Gentoo is on the list and unlike most others on the list it actually supports AMD64.I guess Gentoo is now closed source??
Well, I wouldn't call it (as of now) an "actual support". Right, the base system installs (with some tinkering). But while trying to emerge almost anything else, one encounters soooo much annoyances with masked packages....I guess Gentoo is now closed source??
and after the struggle with unmaskings, it sometimes comes out an application doesn't work indeed ;-). For one, anybody succeeded using pam_ldap on gentoo-amd64?