Re: -= PROPOSAL =- Release sarge with amd64
On Fri, Jul 16, 2004 at 05:16:10AM +0200, Goswin von Brederlow wrote:
[Big snip - Raul Miller wrote]
> > If we release an amd64 in sarge, we're committing to supporting it.
> > If the current port paints us into a corner, that's a good reason to
> > not start supporting it yet.
> >
[Goswin replied]
> No, the only thing referencing lib or lib64 is the ld.so. Because of
> that existing i386 binaries work with /emul/i386-linux/lib under ia64
> or amd64 already. That placement of libraries can change at any time
> without even a special transition (like the c102 names). Binaries need
> not be recompiled for this change.
>
<much useful stuff snipped>
> Actually getting amd64 into sarge means that we will have a wide range
> of packages available and ready for use with multiarch when that takes
> off. Multiarch could be backported to stable and used alongside the
> pure64 debs.
>
> >> The *reality* is that KDE and Gnome aren't the things people are going
> >> to need chroot'd, it's things like Oracle (though I've heard even they
> >> have an AMD64 version now, though I've heard nothing of a PowerPC one),
> >> commercial compilers and other closed-source/binary things.
This long post (in a long thread) sums up a couple of problems in
support and stuff for amd64. I'm being asked NOW for advice and help
by a couple of colleagues who are planning for a potential AMD64 cluster.
They haven't bought the hardware yet but are being very sensible and
specifying the libraries and applications they want from the cluster
vendor (mostly math / physics libraries): they are not explicitly
specifying a distribution. They keep asking me - "Is <foo> library / binary
available in Linux" and seem surprised when I say "Not in Red Hat Enterprise
Linux (or SuSE as far as I know) but it is in Debian" I run a tiny cluster
for testing on 32 bit: they know I'm a Debian zealot but they thought
all Linux was the same. It isn't :)
I need to convince enterprise bean counters that 64 bit Linux is a valid
idea. They'll probably want to buy Red Hat in any event- but probably don't
know the extent of the support they'll get outside the base operating system.
[I can't imagine RH supporting GMP library problems with enthusiasm, for
example]. Pure64 seems to me to be an ideal solution in the short ->
medium term: being 64 bit only will probably save the mathematicians the
trouble of one more variable quantity :)
Can we _please_ stop the arguments: some (few) people need 64 bit Debian
_now_ on AMD64. Please put amd64 pure64 into sid ASAP: flag it as the interim
solution till sarge+1 / sarge+2 and multiarch. That way, it stands a
chance of reaching testing by Sept/October ready for sarge point release
whenever :)
Just my 0.02 <insert monetary units here> Running Debian on 0.0001 of
a decent sized cluster here :)
Andy
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