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I do not want to comment in particular about Itanium. But I have a slew of concerns around old hardware removal, especially drivers like the QLogic 10GBE NICs g

by vkaku 3y ago

I do not want to comment in particular about Itanium. But I have a slew of concerns around old hardware removal, especially drivers like the QLogic 10GBE NICs gone[1]. It means that old software that could potentially virtualize Linux with these adapters are no more useful and that Linux is actually leading to deprecation of older computers in the field. I have this feeling that 6.6.x needs a LTS[2] branch and I'd skip running any newer kernels in production until there is a hint that Linux intends to keep compatibility for at least 10 more years. I'm mostly happy with 6.1.x at the moment. With BSDs offering increasingly better Linux application and driver compatibility, there is a good argument to do away with using the Linux distros in favour of something that works just good enough. Currently, my stable systems run Debian Bookworm 12.2 (LTS 6.1), yet I'm evaluating FreeBSD 14.0+ to see how much it can run any legacy Linux applications without any issues. [1] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37987543 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37987543 [2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_kernel_version_history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_kernel_version_history

kjs3 3y ago
From link 1: * Since it has been abandoned by the vendor and no one has stepped up to maintain it, delete it. * So all you have to do is commit to maintain it and it wouldn't disappear. Problem solved. You will be stepping up to do the work, right, or sticking with "someone other than me should be compelled to support this thing I want". The reason we can have nice (weird, antiquated) things like Linux on m68k is there are people actually stepping up to do the work.
- vkaku 3y ago
  Lack of maintenance suggests that stable working drivers were never there? Or that means the interfaces are volatile? The kernel developers are just making things worse if they want no compatibility across the kernel releases unless they have people meddling with the code periodically. And they will be okay to support the driver for 10 more years as part of 6.1? None of this put together makes sense. They do not have a good test infrastructure for lots of devices. Most drivers have no regression testbeds today. That just tells me things will keep breaking more regularly. It is good that the m68k enthusiasts care, and yet this development model isn't sustainable to begin with.

by vkaku 3y ago

kjs3 3y ago

From link 1: * Since it has been abandoned by the vendor and no one has stepped up to maintain it, delete it. * So all you have to do is commit to maintain it and it wouldn't disappear. Problem solved. You will be stepping up to do the work, right, or sticking with "someone other than me should be compelled to support this thing I want". The reason we can have nice (weird, antiquated) things like Linux on m68k is there are people actually stepping up to do the work.

vkaku 3y ago
Lack of maintenance suggests that stable working drivers were never there? Or that means the interfaces are volatile? The kernel developers are just making things worse if they want no compatibility across the kernel releases unless they have people meddling with the code periodically. And they will be okay to support the driver for 10 more years as part of 6.1? None of this put together makes sense. They do not have a good test infrastructure for lots of devices. Most drivers have no regression testbeds today. That just tells me things will keep breaking more regularly. It is good that the m68k enthusiasts care, and yet this development model isn't sustainable to begin with.