F2bnp wrote:

sliderider wrote:

DosFreak wrote:

How many of those users are commonly using Mesa3D currently?

They will still be able to use 2D and CLI just fine.

A CPU is not a video card. (Not counting the latest AMD/Intel CPUs 😉 ) I can't believe you are even comparing the two.

How is it a bad comparison to make? If I am running Linux on a Pentium MMX system, am I using a modern video card? No, I'm not. I'm using an older PCI or AGP video card that is now going to be unsupported in future Linux releases. If my video card is now unsupported, then they may as well drop support for my CPU, too, because I won't be able to use future Linux releases without video card support even if future releases still support my CPU. Get it?

Why are you running Linux on your Pentium MMX and what do you need 3D for? 🙄

There was a time when games were released commercially for Linux. 🙄

And they're not available for Windows?

I don't think sliderider writes about a real problem of his but a theoretical construct. No point to drill holes into that construct, giving the original issue turns out to be anon issue...

sliderider wrote:

Most of the current Linux builds still run with 486/Pentium systems

Even if the linux kernel retains some backwards compatibility, the rest of the libraries that make up your garden variety linux distro these days are already dropping support for non-SSE CPUs.

Some specialised distributions like Damn Small Linux still run on 486s, but they do so by using older or customised environments without SSE-optimised code. Those distributions should continue to work on old PCs, as long as their maintainers are prepared to re-write SSE-optimised code, or be stuck with old library versions.

SquallStrife wrote:

sliderider wrote:

Most of the current Linux builds still run with 486/Pentium systems

Even if the linux kernel retains some backwards compatibility, the rest of the libraries that make up your garden variety linux distro these days are already dropping support for non-SSE CPUs.

Some specialised distributions like Damn Small Linux still run on 486s, but they do so by using older or customised environments without SSE-optimised code. Those distributions should continue to work on old PCs, as long as their maintainers are prepared to re-write SSE-optimised code, or be stuck with old library versions.

When did you see a Linux distribution targeted for 386 with binaries or shared libs compiled with anything like -march=core2 optimisations? That would be ridiculous to ship userland binaries with optimisation flags not supported by the cpu architecture of the kernel.
I can understand enabling SSE optimisations on amd64 distributions, but then anything supporting the x64 extensions will also support SSE.

I don't understand your question.

I mentioned that distributions like DSL exist that cater to older CPUs.

You mention SSE optimised code in userspace binaries - you won't get those optimisation flags in a distribution which is targeted at 386.

I don't know off hand of any distribution (beyond Gentoo) that targets pentium, core or k6 architecture individually, with those flags applied to the shipped binaries, as opposed to being offered in vanilla 386 or x64 version.

From what I can tell, most of the packages on my headless Ubuntu system are i686 packages. Granted that doesn't mean SSE, but it does mean that distribution probably won't run on a 386, 486, or Pentium.

But like you said, i686 packages won't be in a distro targeted at older machines. Modern distros like Ubuntu aren't targeted at older machines.

I've seen this kind of discussion before. One that comes to mind is about the dropping of regular PCI slots on modern motherboards and the reactions are generally the same:
-Either one mentions it will mean a vast reduction in compatibility due to the large numbers of PCI cards still being used.
-Or someone will mention it should've been dropped 5 years ago to force those people to finally start using current hardware.

Sliderider obviously minds the current situation, but what pain would it cause the others if legacy support had kept continuing?

As I wrote before the situation is not what the topic suggests. Mesa 3D drops legacy card support in newer versions BUT the old Mesa 3D can still be used (though someone with linux knowledge needs to confirm that this is a painless procedure).

Tetrium wrote:

I've seen this kind of discussion before. One that comes to mind is about the dropping of regular PCI slots on modern motherboar […]
Show full quote

I've seen this kind of discussion before. One that comes to mind is about the dropping of regular PCI slots on modern motherboards and the reactions are generally the same:
-Either one mentions it will mean a vast reduction in compatibility due to the large numbers of PCI cards still being used.
-Or someone will mention it should've been dropped 5 years ago to force those people to finally start using current hardware.

Sliderider obviously minds the current situation, but what pain would it cause the others if legacy support had kept continuing?

If it didn't affect them before, it won't affect them now so nobody suffers any pain from continued support. The only people who end up suffering are those still using hardware that is dropped. The code is already written and hasn't needed modification for a long time. What "pain" is there in copy/pasting the code into later revisions of Mesa 3D like they obviously have been doing for some time already?

Another discussion not going anywhere.

Cut and pasting of code is not good programming practice.

Thread closed.