linux-kernel - Re: Old platforms: bring out your dead

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Date:   Sat, 9 Jan 2021 06:56:45 +0100
From:   Willy Tarreau <w@....eu>
To:     Arnd Bergmann <arnd@...nel.org>
Cc:     Linux ARM <linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org>,
        Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        Krzysztof Adamski <krzysztof.adamski@...ia.com>,
        Oleksij Rempel <o.rempel@...gutronix.de>,
        Baruch Siach <baruch@...s.co.il>,
        Russell King - ARM Linux <linux@...linux.org.uk>,
        Daniel Tang <dt.tangr@...il.com>,
        Uwe Kleine-König 
        <u.kleine-koenig@...gutronix.de>, Jamie Iles <jamie@...ieiles.com>,
        Barry Song <song.bao.hua@...ilicon.com>,
        Viresh Kumar <viresh.kumar@...aro.org>,
        Linus Walleij <linus.walleij@...aro.org>,
        Jonas Jensen <jonas.jensen@...il.com>,
        Marc Gonzalez <marc.w.gonzalez@...e.fr>,
        Hartley Sweeten <hsweeten@...ionengravers.com>,
        Lubomir Rintel <lkundrak@...sk>,
        Neil Armstrong <narmstrong@...libre.com>,
        Shawn Guo <shawnguo@...nel.org>, Alex Elder <elder@...aro.org>,
        Alexander Shiyan <shc_work@...l.ru>,
        Koen Vandeputte <koen.vandeputte@...ntric.com>,
        Hans Ulli Kroll <ulli.kroll@...glemail.com>,
        Vladimir Zapolskiy <vz@...ia.com>,
        Wei Xu <xuwei5@...ilicon.com>,
        Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org>,
        Yoshinori Sato <ysato@...rs.osdn.me>,
        Mark Salter <msalter@...hat.com>,
        Michael Ellerman <mpe@...erman.id.au>,
        Geert Uytterhoeven <geert+renesas@...der.be>,
        Thomas Bogendoerfer <tsbogend@...ha.franken.de>
Subject: Re: Old platforms: bring out your dead

On Fri, Jan 08, 2021 at 11:55:06PM +0100, Arnd Bergmann wrote:
> * 80486SX/DX: 80386 CPUs were dropped in 2012, and there are
>   indications that 486 have no users either on recent kernels.
>   There is still the Vortex86 family of SoCs, and the oldest of those were
>   486SX-class, but all the modern ones are 586-class.

These also are the last generation of fanless x86 boards with 100% compatible
controllers, that some people have probably kept around because these don't
age much and have plenty of connectivity. I've used an old one a few times
to plug in an old floppy drive, ISA SCSI controllers to access an old tape
drive and a few such things. That doesn't mean that it's a good justification
not to remove them, what I rather mean is that *if* there is no benefit
in dropping them maybe we can keep them. On the other hand, good luck for
running a modern OS on these, when 16MB-32MB RAM was about the maximum that
was commonly found by then (though if people kept them around that's probably
because they were well equipped, like that 64MB 386DX I'm having :-)).

Willy