linux-kernel - Old platforms never die, was Re: Old platforms: bring out your dead

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Message-ID: <alpine.LNX.2.23.453.2101131035500.6@nippy.intranet>
Date:   Wed, 13 Jan 2021 11:12:06 +1100 (AEDT)
From:   Finn Thain <fthain@...egraphics.com.au>
To:     John Paul Adrian Glaubitz <glaubitz@...sik.fu-berlin.de>
cc:     Gerhard Pircher <gerhard_pircher@....net>,
        Arnd Bergmann <arnd@...db.de>,
        Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        linux-m68k <linux-m68k@...ts.linux-m68k.org>,
        Sparc kernel list <sparclinux@...r.kernel.org>,
        Linux-sh list <linux-sh@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Old platforms never die, was Re: Old platforms: bring out your
 dead

On Tue, 12 Jan 2021, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:

> 
> There has to be a healthy balance between hobbyist and commercial use.
> 

Yes, both of those, and everything in-between, including for-profit 
businesses that serve mostly hobbyists. Also start-up companies that may 
never be commercially viable (which is most of them).

And don't forget government and non-government organisations, 
not-for-profit organisations, charities, etc.

> I understand that from a commercial point of view, it doesn't make much 
> sense to run Linux on a 30-year-old computer.

It ain't necessarily so. I would be surprised if there are no Linux VMs 
running on old corporate mainframes right now. But the age of the hardware 
is largely irrelevant.

If you're a museum interested in cultural artifacts from decades past, or 
if you're a business doing data recovery, you're going to need to operate 
those platforms.

Once removed from mainline Linux, a port becomes basically frozen, and may 
not be compatible with future emulators, which are a moving target. I say 
that because last year I fixed bugs in Linux/m68k that made it incomatible 
with recent QEMU releases (it was only compatible with old QEMU releases).