Arch Dropping i686 Support

[bigtomrodney]

For all you Arch users, I hope you're running x86_64 processors!

Arch Linux - News - Dropping i686 support

[gruven]

I don't use Arch, but I might consider it after hearing this.

I wonder if they will have any sort of multilib?

[Thrillhouse]

Man, I was always a big Arch fan but the last couple of years they've been making some dumb decisions. I think it was around this time last year that they announced they were converting the entire distro to German; forums, wiki, and everything.

[MikeTbob]

HAHA, April fools joke?
This is too wrong to be true guys, why would anyone drop 686 support?

[techieMoe]

HAHA, April fools joke?
This is too wrong to be true guys, why would anyone drop 686 support?

Because it's old, and Arch does try to follow the latest technology? Seriously, it's about time more distributions started throwing their full weight behind X86_64. The technology has been around for almost a decade and there's been zero substantive work in the 64-bit desktop arena. The major distributions have only recently achieved feature parity with their 32-bit counterparts, and no one has managed to actually take full advantage of the new instruction set these processors have. Anyone who has bought a computer in the last 5 years probably has a 64-bit CPU and most of them aren't even aware of it. It's time to move on.

[oz]

I've been running 64-bit for the last 8 or 9 months and loving it, but I recognised this as another of the Arch dev's annual April 1st gags the minute it went up.

[MikeTbob]

Because it's old, and Arch does try to follow the latest technology? Seriously, it's about time more distributions started throwing their full weight behind X86_64. The technology has been around for almost a decade and there's been zero substantive work in the 64-bit desktop arena. The major distributions have only recently achieved feature parity with their 32-bit counterparts, and no one has managed to actually take full advantage of the new instruction set these processors have. Anyone who has bought a computer in the last 5 years probably has a 64-bit CPU and most of them aren't even aware of it. It's time to move on.

That's exactly my point. It has been around for a long time but no one is adopting it. To tell you my opinion, I don't think users even care about it. Pretty much the same thing has happened to ipv6, it's a newer technology and it supposedly works better, but no one is using it. That's why I think it's just crazy for Arch or anyone else for that matter to drop support for 686. I'm not saying I am against this idea or anything, I just think it's counterproductive.

[MikeTbob]

I've been running 64-bit for the last 8 or 9 months and loving it, but I recognised this as another of the Arch dev's annual April 1st gags the minute it went up.

AHAHA, man I just had to fire off that last post, while you were typing that up.

[gruven]

That's exactly my point. It has been around for a long time but no one is adopting it. To tell you my opinion, I don't think users even care about it. Pretty much the same thing has happened to ipv6, it's a newer technology and it supposedly works better, but no one is using it. That's why I think it's just crazy for Arch or anyone else for that matter to drop support for 686. I'm not saying I am against this idea or anything, I just think it's counterproductive.

I thought it may be an April Fools joke, but I was hoping it wasn't. It is about time for distros to give more support to 64 bit.

ipv6 is the same, except that everyone will be using it at some point. I use ipv6, and am slowly migrating my lan to it.

[techieMoe]

That's exactly my point. It has been around for a long time but no one is adopting it. To tell you my opinion, I don't think users even care about it.

Well, actually you're bolstering my point. The reason I believe no real work has been done on 64-bit is precisely because no major distribution has taken it seriously. It's not that users don't care, it's that no one has done the work to make them care. 64-bit processors are capable of much more than just "working as well as 32-bit ones."

That's why I think it's just crazy for Arch or anyone else for that matter to drop support for 686. I'm not saying I am against this idea or anything, I just think it's counterproductive.

How so? Arch is a niche distro to begin with. Sure, they'll lose a few die-hards who cling to their Pentium 4s and curse the ever-changing world but who cares? I thought Arch was supposed to be a forward-thinking, bleeding-edge distribution?

On the original article, I'm pretty sure it is an April Fools joke but I really, really wish it weren't. These sorts of topics need to be seriously considered or the desktop computing world will stagnate in 32-bit software because it's "good enough." Imagine what would have happened if Microsoft had said Windows 3.11 was "good enough" or Linus had said version 1.0 of the Linux kernel was "good enough." We have to potential for serious performance gains (among other things) if we focus on the technology that is here, now, and proven but completely untapped.