On Sun, Feb 12, 2006 at 02:32:03AM +0000, segv@netctl.net wrote:
> Which OS are you going to run on it? I think you'll struggle to turn NetBSD
> sparc64 into a reliable desktop system:

Hmm... I disagree - I'm very happy with my sparc64 system. Perhaps my
requirements are low or unusual though - I run Fluxbox, konqueror (for web
browsing), akregator (for RSS feeds), xmms, some dockapps and a lot of
terminal windows running non-X11 applications. All I want is a traditional
Unix workstation, not something to run all the latest multimedia apps (like
mplayer, et al).

> 1. Threading bugs are still present (I think)

I think the threading bugs are still present, but I haven't had any hangs
because of them on my workstation running either 3.0_BETA or (now) current
(3.99.15). I occasionally have konqueror (well, kdeinit) eating 100% CPU,
but the machine never hangs.

> 2. 32-bit emulation is not complete (threading is not supported) and there is
> too much software that is not 64-bit clean

Fair enough, but the only software that's an issue for me is Firefox (which
I haven't even bothered compiling now that 1.5 is available as konqueror
works well for me). The other issue is the lack of a Lisp interpreter, but
I'm guessing that's not a big issue for most :)

I've recently rebuild a lot of packages on my workstation and almost
everything works without problem.
[p0] mj@tesla:/var/db/pkg$ ls -l |wc -l 
     490

Although I don't use them (or use them only infrequently), I have all of
KDE 3.5, xfce4 4.2, GNOME 2.12, gimp 2.3, rox 2.4, samba 3.20, windowmaker,
etc installed.

> 3. No SMP :-(

Painful, but for a Blade 100/150 not an issue. With the low price of fast
dual Ultra 2s/Ultra 60s it's a PITA, but I know it's being worked on.

-mj
-- 
Michael-John Turner | http://weblogs.turner.org.za/mj/
mj@turner.org.za    | Open Source in WC ZA - http://www.clug.org.za/