SPARC Status (Was Re: Secondary Architecture Status?)

[Ralf Corsepius]

Adam Williamson wrote:
> On Mon, 2009-05-11 at 14:51 -0400, Josh Boyer wrote:
> 
>> I would really like to see a proliferation of secondary arches in
>> Fedora, but I don't think 'workstation' is a viable usage model for
>> them to get started.  Most will have to focus on the type of hardware
>> that actually sells for that arch, and yes I realize that can be at
>> odds with some of the directions Fedora is going.
> 
> Semi-sidetrack here: Ubuntu has a secondary 'architecture' called LPIA
> which is, in fact, just an alternative set of compiler optimizations
> which they claim results in better code for 'netbook
> systems' (presumably meaning 'Atom CPUs'). Would that be something we
> could look into, or not interesting?
It likely is something worth looking into, but based on my experiences 
with Fedora on my netbook, I am having doubts compiler optimizations 
alone are worth a "secondary arch".

At least on my netbook, neither "speed" or "space" (mine has a disk) are 
actual problems.

The actual problems I am facing are:
a) Low level related issues (HW/drivers/kernels, Xserver, WLAN, ..., 
suspend/resume, function-keys). I.e. essentially the same issues as on 
many other machines, esp. notebooks.

b) GUI layout issues: Much of the current DEs and GUI-apps appear not to 
be prepared/designed for usage on small, wide displays.

Ralf