Re: the problem of rust :-(

[Brad Spencer <brad%anduin.eldar.org@localhost>]

nia <nia%NetBSD.org@localhost> writes:

> On Wed, Jun 05, 2024 at 03:27:03PM +0000, pin wrote:
>> > 2) decide to give up on some platforms, withdrawing significant
>> > amounts of software, and basically turning the hardware into ewaste
>> 
>> I'm against ewaste but, honestly it was ages ago you could walk into a retailer shop and walk out with a 32bits machine.
>> Add to this, that many projects refuse to support 32bits, this is independent of Rust.
>> There are several Go packages failing to build on 32bits.
>
> Not true.
>
> https://www.vortex86.com/products


A single example does not really negate the point being made.


I would use this illustration:

When the VAX (32 bit system) came out, it took a while before the PDP-11
(16 bit system) was replaced and I am sure that sales of the PDP-11
continued for some time (and probably for DECs competition).  Indeed,
even last year in 2023 a patch for BSD 2.11 for the PDP-11 appeared.
However, one can't really argue that as the 32 bit systems became more
common, software that would run on the 32 bit systems would often times
not run on the 16 bit systems.  Some efforts were made to port the
software but it was often quite a hard task.  I lived though the very
end of this transition.

It may very well be the case that the 32 bit and 64 bit systems are
entering a phase simular to the 16 bit -> 32 bit transition.









-- 
Brad Spencer - brad%anduin.eldar.org@localhost - KC8VKS - http://anduin.eldar.org