Neil Roeth writes: > Nice summary. > > * Drop i386 support mostly. 'i386' architecture becomes 'i486'. > > Start a 'Debian-real-i386' subproject, with a 'real-i386' architecture, > > but don't require that any packages build on it in order to go into > > testing or to release Debian; it would be a bonus architecture, with > > a limited number of packages avaiable. > > > > This seems to be the most immediately feasible option. Several people > > have already indicated their approval of this idea. I wouldn't wait for > > sarge to release, but do it ASAP. (Since C++ is already semi-broken on > > 386s, this would likely make things better for i386 in fact; at least > > it would have a specific functioning project.) > > > > This is assuming someone with a real i386 is willing to lead a > > 'Debian-real-i386' project (which wouldn't be a huge amount of work, > > really; upstream support is usually pretty good, you don't have to actually > > compile packages on your slow 386, just test them there, and you don't have > > to worry about ABI compatibility with anyone much). If nobody is willing > > then I'd say there just isn't enough support and 386 should be dropped > > outright. > > I am in favor of dropping the 386 altogether, but this is acceptable as an > alternative. If people would rather work on keeping 386 software up to date > than just run woody forever, more power to them. It doesn't seem like it > would cost much on anyone else's part to enable this.
What are the steps to be taken to move to i486-linux? Has this to be decided on debian-policy? Would it be ok to drop i386-linux until somebody starts it again? Matthias