Re: /etc/disktab on vax

[David Brownlee <abs%netbsd.org@localhost>]

On 1 July 2012 21:33, Dave McGuire <mcguire%neurotica.com@localhost> wrote:
> On 07/01/2012 04:24 PM, John Nemeth wrote:
>> On Nov 15, 10:39am, Dave McGuire wrote:
>> } On 06/25/2012 07:10 AM, David Brownlee wrote:
>> } >>> I hope support for my old VAX is still around when I finally get
>> } >>> around to get it running again.  Linux just removed support for some
>> } >>> of the older SPARC systems that I collect.
>> } >
>> } > That would be sun4c? Linux never really ran very well on it - they did
>> } > a much better job on sun4m and later.
>> }
>> }   Very true.
>> }
>> } > I would not expect NetBSD/sparc sun4c support to be an issue going 
>> forward :)
>> }   It had better not.  The day NetBSD stops supporting sun4c is the day
>> } it stops being NetBSD.
>>
>>      That's a little excessive.  Depending on the longevity of NetBSD,
>> there will come a day when supporting sun4c will be utterly pointless.
>> That doesn't mean NetBSD is no longer NetBSD just that it has evolved.
>
>   I disagree.  There will come a day (and this day has come and went for
> MOST people, but not all) when it's pointless to run a sun4c in
> commercial production.  Many people run them for hobby purposes.
>
>   So.  Shall NetBSD just decide to be a commercially-targeted OS that
> only cares about what is new and shiny?  Speaking as a proud and happy
> NetBSD user since v0.9 almost two decades ago, I feel that I can
> reasonably assert that this has NEVER been what NetBSD is about.
>
>   Loss of functionality is not "evolution".

There my well come a day when a 32bit system with a 64 or at most 128M
address space and the performance characteristics of a sun4c is no
longer a viable platform for NetBSD. I do not see that happening in
the near future, but its possible that in 20 years, or 40, or some
even longer time it is no longer feasible to support such ancient
hardware and still deliver what is expected for a modern OS.

Coming from someone who is using NetBSD/vax and playing with
NetBSD/dreamcast I can safely say I have hardware much closer on that
curve than sun4c :)

Still, I suspect NetBSD/sun4c support may outlast most of us on this list :)