Re: Bug#240896: not pending anymore
Wichert Akkerman <wichert@wiggy.net> writes:
> Lets look at other big distributions:
>
> Redhat: x86-64 (or 'Intel EM64T & AMD64' in their whitepapers)
and other places, most visible their product placement:
http://www.redhat.com/software/rhel/purchase/
Basic/Standard/Premium Editions
Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS
Intel x86 $1499 $2499
Intel Itanium2 and EM64T, AMD64,
IBM iSeries & pSeries $1992 $2988
IBM zSeries & s/390* $15000* $18000*
Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS
Intel x86 $179 $299
Intel Itanium2 and EM64T, AMD64 $792
RH had the support for x86_64 running before amd64 was called amd64
and as the kernel and GNU did they didn't change it. But the customer
visible name is amd64.
The visible product name for Debian is what the arch is called and
that should be amd64. That we also have that name as file 'extension'
in the debs instead of the old/gnu name x86_64 as rpm does shouldn't
stop us.
> SuSE: x86_64 (or 'AMD/Intel 64-bit processors')
Same story I believe.
> Gentoo: amd64
> Mandrake: AMD64
>
> So the two biggest ones picked x86-64 (ignoring the - vs _). Slackware
> and Conectiva do not support the architecture at the moment. Which means
> that the vast majority of Linux users will know and recognize x64-64.
(New) Users will only see the sticker on the cpu and Linux Box. And
all distributions use Amd64 or for Amd Althon(tm) 64.
> Now lets look at what developers will encounter:
>
> kernel x86_64
> gcc x86_64
> binutils x86_64
>
> So all developers chose x86_64.
>
> Looking at that data it seems obvious that the Linux/free software community
> has made its choice and overwhelmingly selected x86[_-]64. So why does
> Debian want to different and pick a name that no developer uses and
> users will not recognize from popular other distributions?
The developers chose x86_64 before it was named amd64 and they never
changed it. For technical reasons we can't use x86_64 without breaking
a lot of assumpions in tools.
Having x86-64 causes problem with the - for some sources and will be
very confusing when both x86_64 (the gnu name) and x86-64 (the debian
name) appear in e.g. the debian/rules file.
e.g.:
ifeq ($ARCH,x86-64)
./configure --host x86_64-linux -DWITH_BIG_INTS ....
endif
Having the two clearly distinct (amd64/x86_64) helps spotting which
one is ment and gives clear errors if the wrong one was used.
> Wichert.
MfG
Goswin
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