Re: Y2038 - best way forward in Debian?

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>]

> My opinion (professional in this case, even) is that i386 users want
> compatibility with their binaries from 1998.

I don't claim to be representative, but at least the above doesn't fit
my case: I use i386 on many of my machines and here are the reasons:

- 2 of those machines use processors that don't support amd64 (a Pentium
  III for one and Core Duo for the other).

- For the other 4, the main reason is probably inertia, and the
  secondary reason is that I've found that I'm more affected by cache
  hit/miss (and swapping) than by speed of in-CPU operations, so i386
  gives me slightly higher performance (in those rare cases where I've
  measured it) because both code and data is more compact.

I suspect that none of my 2 non-amd64 machines will be in use by 2038.
And I see no reason why I'd want to "upgrade" to amd64 on the other
machines, but if that's what it takes to keep them running past 2038,
then that's probably what I'll do.


        Stefan