> On Fri, 27 Nov 1998, Dave Wreski wrote:
> > On 28-Nov-98 Eloy A. Paris wrote:
> >
> > 1. Because there aren't many PCs with 8 or more CPUs around to do
> > testing on.
> > 2. Because of #1, our efforts are better spent working on more
> > real-life problems.
>
> Number 2 is the most important reason. Just look at the
> Linux-MM site (on my home page) to get an impression on
> the average TODO list each subsystem has.
>
> [snip]
I'll grant you that the majority of installations are done
on PC's. But if reason #2 above is really an issue, then
why even bother doing things like a Sparc port, or an
Alpha port, or a PPC port, or a 68K port. The number of
people running Linux on an Alpha has to be small compared
to the number of people using Linux on x86. So why do
it at all?
Because of all these ports that have been popping up
I have really started to believe that the native OS
for those platforms might disappear someday, or at least
fall into disuse. Of course one will always have a
mix of hardware platforms in an Enterprise environment,
but think about how much easier it would be to manage
if they all ran Linux. i.e. The Data General AViiON
might actually be a half-way decent system if one had
the option of using Linux over DG/UX.
My point is that the PC shouldn't be the only platform
considered when talking about SMP. I think there are
more SMP systems out there that are _not_ x86 than are
x86. That may change as Intel continues to beat CISC
into the ground.
David F. Newman
buzzwang@ourvillage.com
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