Hi Steven and Denyer,We are *also* sad to see sparc32 go, but these kinds of messages are only a repeat of similar reactions on earlier threads.What we need to sparc32 alive - not only in Debian, but in Linux in general - is not people who are sad, but people who are willing to invest time and energy to fix the issues there are, to make sure sparc32 is supported in the software (kernel, toolchain, whatever) and who are committed to _keeping_ it maintained.Being sad unfortunately does not help with that at all.
I joined the sparc32 list with the intention of contributing. My surprise, and disappointment, is because the first message that I saw regarding the architecture is that it is going to be retired. Yes, I agree that "being sad" does nothing, except indicate that there are people out there who use it. (I can think of a few school districts that have limited budgets that have a SPARC or two).
As to alternatives, what you should be looking for is somewhere where there is a vibrant sparc32 community, including people who are not just sad, but who are actually doing work to maintain the port.I believe that they do, though I have not made any overtures to join their community yet, as I don't have as much experience with their kernel.I have no idea if NetBSD has such a community or not.
Steve