[arch-ports] Phasing out i686 support

[David Daniel]

Hi Erich and Tyzoid

Thanks for your replies! I am glad things aren't so final. One reason
for our decision to use Arch Linux is its rolling release model.
Another one is pkgbuild that makes package creation easy and AUR that
provides a lot of additional packages. Another reason is the
possibility to create a slim system without unnecessary overhead... and
so on ;-)
Concerning stability I often encountered that newer software runs more
stable than older "more stable" versions, often in newer versions bugs
are eliminated - of course if only new features are provided this is
not the case, I just think its more complicated as "newer software
equals more buggy behaviour". And after all we also develop software
and its great to have recent versions available - imagine using Debian,
if the team wants to switch to Qt5.9 they probably have to wait for
another 5 years until they can have it, by that time it is already
deprecated (this is exaggerated, I know ;-) ).

Thank you!
Cheers
Dave

Am Donnerstag, den 08.06.2017, 11:36 +0200 schrieb Erich Eckner:
> Hi Dave,
> 
> > Since this news item was not posted on the 1st of april I guess
> > this is
> > not a joke - just to make sure: Is this really true, there won't be
> > a
> > 32-bit Arch Linux from November 2017? I ask this because we
> > recently
> > (okay, about 2-3 years ago) switched to Arch Linux for our devices,
> > those devices run on 32-bit only and they will exist for at least
> > the
> > next seven years. We are in the railway industry, things don't
> > change
> > monthly.
> 
> It's true, but: There are community efforts to keep archlinux running
> on
> 32 bit.
> 
> > This fact puts us in trouble. I see that manufacturers don't
> > produce
> > much 32-bit hardware any more (there still is though!) but there is
> > still a lot of 32-bit hardware around that still runs and is meant
> > to
> > run for quite some time.
> > 
> > I think it's bad to discontinue 32-bit systems when still
> > corresponding
> > hardware is in use, this would support the same waste that other
> > manufacturers push (e.g. XYZ that doesn't support its mobile phone
> > one
> > year after releasing it).
> > 
> > Am I the only one who thinks that way?
> 
> nope, you're not the only one.
> 
> Check out archlinux32.org and/or visit the irc channel (#archlinux-
> ports
> on freenode.net) for further infos. However, this is still a work in
> progress - but I'm confident, we get things running until november.
> 
> If all goes smooth, the transition for you should be as easy as
> changing
> your mirrorlist and updating your pacman-keyring.
> 
> > Thanks for your clarification, arguments, thoughts, ideas!
> 
> Just some other thoughts:
> Arch is not the most stable linux I've seen (frankly, it's quite
> unstable, because it's so bleeding-edge) - why do you prefer it on
> "old"
> hardware in production - you certainly don't need all the new fancy
> (and
> partly buggy) software, do you?
> 
> > Best Regards
> > Dave
> 
> Cheers,
> Erich