Re: netbsd on vax 11/730; booting in sim

[Jochen Kunz <jkunz%unixag-kl.fh-kl.de@localhost>]

On Fri, 9 Jan 2009 09:37:36 -0500 (EST)
der Mouse <mouse%Rodents-Montreal.ORG@localhost> wrote:

> So, check my understanding: what you're saying is that, in your
> opinion, NetBSD should no longer bother with supporting legacy
> hardware like vax - or, presumably, hp300 or mac68k or anything else
> not capable of running whatever you consider essential to being a
> non-"dinosaur". Correct?
No. I consider a CDC-6600 or a PDP-10 or 4.2BSD a dinosaur.
VAXen and m68k machines are already mammals. ;-)

I say: If you run current operating systems on old hardware, you have
accept that it doesn't run that fast as a 10 year old version of that
operating system. 

And given all those VAXen around me I certainly don't want to cut
support for VAXen in NetBSD.

Also: We VAXherds are not the only users of NetBSD. There are other
users with other priorities, other interrests and faster machines like
Alpha, UltraSPARC and even PeeCees. Refusing to import "bloat" that
those people want, _need_, only because it slows down our old VAXen, is
a bit unfair.

Also #2: DEC pulled the plug of the VAX architecture 15 years ago and
replaced the VAX with Alpha. DEC did this because it was clear that the
VAX couldn't compete with the rest of the industry. It was slow even
bak in the late 80ies. (Compare a VAXstation 3100 againt a DECstation
3100 or a SPARCstation 1...)
-- 


tschüß,
       Jochen

Homepage: http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz/