Re: Debian release criteria.
>> From: "Andrew M.A. Cater" <amacater@einval.com>
>> Date: Wed, 4 Jan 2023 16:32:37 +0000
>> > All software is buggy: it is a matter of luck whether bugs hit you.
>> =8~/ A hacker might be satisfied with luck. An engineer should not
>> be. If I claim to be a package maintainer, I test as broadly as
>> feasible. A 32 bit machine is easily found.
> Sorry, I respectfully disagree. A 32 bit AMD/Intel machine has barely
> been manufactured for >10 years now. If you happen to have a pure 32
> bit machine sitting around, you're probably living on borrowed time.
Indeed. I'm still happily using Debian on my trusty Thinkpad X30, which
is my last 32bit-only i386 machine. But regarding the larger meaning of
"32bit", such machines are still manufactured (in the armhf family, for
example).
> If you mean running 32 bit on a 64 bit capable machine - why is that
> better than running 64 bit code anyway?
I upgraded my Thinkpad T60 with a Core 2 Duo (i.e. 64bit capable), but
with 3GB of RAM, I prefer to stay with a 32bit userland.
It's definitely older than 10 years, admittedly.
> Debian is possibly the last major Linux distribution to support 32 bit
> on x86 - the others have all given up now.
Yes, I'm preparing psychologically for the time when my X30 will not be
able to run Debian testing any more. This said, it'll turn 20 this
summer, which I think is quite remarkable: I never imagined back then
that the end of Dennard's scaling would keep this machine (marginally)
usable for 20 years.
Stefan
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