Re: 2024Q2: firefox-esr failing on NetBSD 10 i386

[Greg Troxel <gdt%lexort.com@localhost>]

Matthew Widup <widupmm%proton.me@localhost> writes:

> I am.  I have four such machines (i386, non-headless, desktop usage),
> and they aren't going anywhere anytime soon.  Whilst I don't normally
> use Firefox on them, it is nice to be able to, on occasion.  I haven't
> moved any of them to a recent pkgsrc yet.  They should all be on
> 2023Q4, I think.

Wow, but an interesting data point.  I am guessing you mean that these
computers have CPUs that are i386 only and are not capable of running
NetBSD/amd64, but have enough memory that it's possible to run firefox.
If you meant something else please unconfuse me :-)

You may want to get one of them set up to be able to build packages and
help with keeping things working.  Many of the beastly package upstreams
seem indifferent to portability concerns (e.g. they are willing to use
rust), and also indifferent to continued use of 32-bit CPU types.  So
assumptions of LP64 creep in alongside linuxy type expectations, just
like ILP32 assumptions used to be normal.

A lot of the people who work on pkgsrc have stopped trying to use 32-bit
CPU types for desktop-type usage.  For me, it is just extra work and
pain for no good reason, as the oldest computer I want to use
electricity to run is from 2006 and will run amd64.  I don't mean to say
others shouldn't work on this -- just that I've crossed it off my
personal todo list.