[SOLVED] Use 32-bit Slackware? Post here to let the developers know!
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All machines I'm running - be it mine or my client's - are a mix of 32-bit and 64-bit. I hope 32-bit will not disappear, this would be quite embarrassing.
There's a french "port" of Slackware called "0linux" developed by a guy from a research lab. Very clean and all. Only reason I don't use it is it's 64-bit only.
It is not anymore. Drop an eye on the downloads page to find the i686 port.
It is not anymore. Drop an eye on the downloads page to find the i686 port.
I Just downloaded it and had a look inside the initrd. Interesting. I'll give it a try as soon as my homework is finished, in a very few weeks now. BTW, I think I will need your cooperation for UTF-8. I will send you a PM about that later today.
Last edited by Didier Spaier; 02-09-2013 at 01:46 PM.
Distribution: Slackware (mainly) and then a lot of others...
Posts: 855
Rep:
Either I missed the question or else I did not understand the seriousness of the question.
Hardware wise all I have is 32 bit (2 desktops and 1 laptop) and I do not intend to replace them soon (I wish I could).
But this in no way has anything to do with slackware development (AFAIK). Unless Pat and crew tell me that they would not be suporting 32-bit slackware anymore. I believe the slackware community (crowd) would follow them and trust them to make the right decisions.
To Slackware developers: You guys have done an awesome job thus far and I believe that you would continue the same way in the future.
It seems to be a bit of odd that Slackware devlopers would be swayed by anything (even the community views) that would hinder them from delivering the greatest and the most beautiful OS there is out there.
My 2 cents.
I've already commented on the original question. My comments on the 486 item has been answered by drmozes.
My only other input would be to AlienBob. If you feel it is best for you to move on, I wish you the best of luck and can't thank you enough for your contributions. But I do hope you'll stay
Thanks for everything man you have been a huge asset to the community. While Slackware certainly can get along without you; I know I and many people here are very grateful for all the hard work you have put in over the years. You have made our favorite distribution better and all our lives easier. Whatever you decide to do, best wishes and good luck.
As far as 32-bit goes. There is quite a lot of still very capable Atom and similar hardware out there that is almost contemporary. I know while I was traveling for about a year I used my HP Mini Netbook (1366x768 display) which is 32-bit only as my only machine. It served me well and Slackware enabled me to manage personal activity on it. As well as having a bit of fun gaming etc. So there is still real value in 32-bit platform. Many of these machines are really not that old, some only around 2 years. Multilib also depends on a x86 package tree being available.
That said as a developer I recognize how tedious maintaining multiple trains of the same code gets. I also know given Slackware's tradition of supporting older release with security patches for years the number of additional builds of things keeping x86 train going likely means. Older machines can run older releases especially with security patches available for some reasonable period of time. There is not much x86 only hardware being produced now if any and the remaining 32-bit only software should be shifting off to the dustbin of history over the next few years too.
I would say a library/compiler/a set/X/kde/xfce refresh on 14 as a 14.1 will probably make sense. Then perhaps a major release after the new math gets baked in, that being udev, systemd (hopefully not), etc settling down as Slackware 15. Maybe that could be the last x86 release. That way those major changes get rolled in, and folks using that last gasp of more recent x86 hardware can expect to be able to support themselves updating higher level packages from slackbuilds without major heavy lifting for a little while longer until the hardware really is quite obsolete. Hopefully by then alternatives to the remaining 32-bit only software most depend on will exist as well.
All that is just my 2 cents though; I have total faith whatever decisions Pat and his team makes will be the right ones.
Last edited by chemfire; 02-09-2013 at 05:50 PM.
Reason: spelling
This week I put Slackware 14.0 on a 2006 macbook - a 32bit machine. I need to run a 32bit piece of commercial software from a company that has gone away.
I still use 32bit Slackware (now and in the foreseeable future) - please don't abandon it.
I do not see a standard compliant way (like RSS, mail) to subscribe to a twitter feed. They want me to sign up and agree to https://twitter.com/tos, which I won't.
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