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List:       fedora-devel-list
Subject:    Re: Fedora 31 System-Wide Change proposal (late): No i686 Repositories
From:       Samuel Sieb <samuel () sieb ! net>
Date:       2019-09-11 8:55:01
Message-ID: 29d79a98-b540-06d9-7cb9-76b05b7e8050 () sieb ! net
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On 9/11/19 12:50 AM, John M. Harris Jr. wrote:
> On Wednesday, September 11, 2019 12:28:31 AM MST Samuel Sieb wrote:
>> It's not incorrect.  Almost all x86 hardware is 64-bit capable,
>> therefore building a 32-bit is of very limited use.  It is not easy to
>> find 32-bit only CPUs now.  Yes, I know some still exist; I have one
>> embedded in my wall (NSC Geode).  But the last paragraph is important.
>> Keeping the i686 kernel in Fedora is hurting everyone for the benefit of
>> an extremely small group of users.
> 
> Again, it's completely false that "almost all x86 hardware is 64-bit capable".
> That may be true of newer hardware, but that does nothing to change existing
> hardware. The laptop I'm typing this email on right now is 32 bit only, by the
> way. It was manufactured in 2011.

I do understand that there are still a few 32-bit CPUs around, but if 
you take all the currently functional in-use x86 hardware, what 
percentage do you actually think is not 64-bit capable?  You have to 
look really hard to find any.  I got a bunch of P4 computers from _2005_ 
for a school computer lab.  They are 64-bit capable and with 2GB of RAM 
they work great.  I originally had some slightly older ones that might 
have been 32-bit only, but those are long gone.

> I also fail to see how keeping the i686 kernel "is slowing down all other
> arches that are supported", and I'd love to know why that's the case, so I can
> get to fixing it.

Because when there is a problem with the 32-bit kernel compile, it 
breaks kernel updates for everyone.  The issues take time to get fixed 
because even upstream barely cares about it.  And fixing those issues 
takes developer time that would be more useful elsewhere.
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