PC-BSD has refocused its resources on 64bit

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gcmartin

PC-BSD has refocused its resources on 64bit

#1 Post by gcmartin »

Kris Moore, the project's founder and lead developer, has published an interesting update that also suggests a drop of the i386 architecture from the future development roadmap:
"In addition to re-focusing on solely on ZFS as our default file system, we have had to take a look at the feasibility of continuing with the i386 builds. As many of you know, ZFS is a 21st century operating system that doesn't play nicely with the legacy i386 kernel / versions of FreeBSD. In addition, over the past couple years, more and more of time-consuming issues we've encountered have been only on i386, partly due to the fact that most FreeBSD developers have already moved on to 64-bit systems and also due to the quickly shrinking number of users / systems that still run i386. In order to make PC-BSD and TrueOS secure, stable and timely, we've decided to drop the i386 builds going forward, and instead focus on a single 64-bit architecture. This means that the next editions of rolling-release and 9.2 onward will be 64-bit only."
This is consistent with several comments by Linux Tovalds, couple years ago.

Many will object, but, he appears to be firm about his resource commitments and the direction.

FYI

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Q5sys
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Re: PC-BSD has refocused its resources on 64bit

#2 Post by Q5sys »

gcmartin wrote:Kris Moore, the project's founder and lead developer, has published an interesting update that also suggests a drop of the i386 architecture from the future development roadmap:
"In addition to re-focusing on solely on ZFS as our default file system, we have had to take a look at the feasibility of continuing with the i386 builds. As many of you know, ZFS is a 21st century operating system that doesn't play nicely with the legacy i386 kernel / versions of FreeBSD. In addition, over the past couple years, more and more of time-consuming issues we've encountered have been only on i386, partly due to the fact that most FreeBSD developers have already moved on to 64-bit systems and also due to the quickly shrinking number of users / systems that still run i386. In order to make PC-BSD and TrueOS secure, stable and timely, we've decided to drop the i386 builds going forward, and instead focus on a single 64-bit architecture. This means that the next editions of rolling-release and 9.2 onward will be 64-bit only."
This is consistent with several comments by Linux Tovalds, couple years ago.


Many will object, but, he appears to be firm about his resource commitments and the direction.

FYI

Do you have a link? I'd like to read up on this more. Is he planning on dropping support for i486, i586, and i686? Or is he just dropping i386?

I asked a buddy of mine who is a big BSD guy, and he said he was wondering when this was coming.
I'm actually kind of surprised they didn't drop i386 support before Linux. I'm also surprised Linus decided to keep i486, since he dropped i386 with the 3.8 kernel this February.

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James C
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Re: PC-BSD has refocused its resources on 64bit

#3 Post by James C »

Q5sys wrote:
gcmartin wrote:Kris Moore, the project's founder and lead developer, has published an interesting update that also suggests a drop of the i386 architecture from the future development roadmap:
"In addition to re-focusing on solely on ZFS as our default file system, we have had to take a look at the feasibility of continuing with the i386 builds. As many of you know, ZFS is a 21st century operating system that doesn't play nicely with the legacy i386 kernel / versions of FreeBSD. In addition, over the past couple years, more and more of time-consuming issues we've encountered have been only on i386, partly due to the fact that most FreeBSD developers have already moved on to 64-bit systems and also due to the quickly shrinking number of users / systems that still run i386. In order to make PC-BSD and TrueOS secure, stable and timely, we've decided to drop the i386 builds going forward, and instead focus on a single 64-bit architecture. This means that the next editions of rolling-release and 9.2 onward will be 64-bit only."
This is consistent with several comments by Linux Tovalds, couple years ago.


Many will object, but, he appears to be firm about his resource commitments and the direction.

FYI



Do you have a link? I'd like to read up on this more. Is he planning on dropping support for i486, i586, and i686? Or is he just dropping i386?

I asked a buddy of mine who is a big BSD guy, and he said he was wondering when this was coming.
I'm actually kind of surprised they didn't drop i386 support before Linux. I'm also surprised Linus decided to keep i486, since he dropped i386 with the 3.8 kernel this February.
Here's a link...
http://blog.pcbsd.org/2013/06/pc-bsd-status-update/
In addition to re-focusing on solely on ZFS as our default file-system, we have had to take a look at the feasibility of continuing with the i386 builds. As many of you know, ZFS is a 21st century operating system and doesn’t play nicely with the legacy i386 kernel / versions of FreeBSD. In addition over the past couple years, more and more of time-consuming issues we’ve encountered have been only on i386, partly due to the fact that most FreeBSD devs have already moved on to 64bit and also due to the quickly shrinking number of users / systems that still run i386. In order to make PC-BSD / TrueOS, secure, stable and timely, we’ve decided to drop the i386 builds going forward, and instead focus on a single 64bit architecture. This means the next editions of rolling-release and 9.2 onward will be 64bit only. If you are already on 64bit, then you won’t need to worry about anything. However if you are running i386 on your box you will need to consider moving it to the 64bit versions in the near future. If your hardware is less than 10 years old then most likely you will be able to do this without any difficulty.
Kinda hard to interpret but it appears to be 64 bit only in the future.

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Q5sys
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Re: PC-BSD has refocused its resources on 64bit

#4 Post by Q5sys »

James C wrote:
Here's a link...
http://blog.pcbsd.org/2013/06/pc-bsd-status-update/
In addition to re-focusing on solely on ZFS as our default file-system, we have had to take a look at the feasibility of continuing with the i386 builds. As many of you know, ZFS is a 21st century operating system and doesn’t play nicely with the legacy i386 kernel / versions of FreeBSD. In addition over the past couple years, more and more of time-consuming issues we’ve encountered have been only on i386, partly due to the fact that most FreeBSD devs have already moved on to 64bit and also due to the quickly shrinking number of users / systems that still run i386. In order to make PC-BSD / TrueOS, secure, stable and timely, we’ve decided to drop the i386 builds going forward, and instead focus on a single 64bit architecture. This means the next editions of rolling-release and 9.2 onward will be 64bit only. If you are already on 64bit, then you won’t need to worry about anything. However if you are running i386 on your box you will need to consider moving it to the 64bit versions in the near future. If your hardware is less than 10 years old then most likely you will be able to do this without any difficulty.
Kinda hard to interpret but it appears to be 64 bit only in the future.
Cool thanks.

mini-jaguar
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#5 Post by mini-jaguar »

On another note, if you check the Desktop BSD site, it looks like they are trying to revive that other front end for FreeBSD, but sadly haven't gotten very far.

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L18L
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PC-BSD has refocused its resources on 64bit

#6 Post by L18L »

I beg your pardon.
Could someone please enlighten me what BC-BSD has to to with Puppy or Linux
:?:

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Q5sys
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Re: PC-BSD has refocused its resources on 64bit

#7 Post by Q5sys »

L18L wrote:I beg your pardon.
Could someone please enlighten me what BC-BSD has to to with Puppy or Linux
:?:
Nothing.

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Ted Dog
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#8 Post by Ted Dog »

This is best not even linux, why is this not posted in off-topic :?:

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Q5sys
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#9 Post by Q5sys »

Ted Dog wrote:This is best not even linux, why is this not posted in off-topic :?:
Only one person can answer that question. I wondered the same thing when it was posted, but I choose not to comment on it so my comment wouldnt be used as a reason to turn yet another thread into a flame war.

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