Anyone working on a Feodore release for X86-64? -- personal viewpoint ...

[Bryan J. Smith]

Quoting Dave Jones <davej at redhat.com>:
> I take it you're using 2.6 ?  The current Fedora test2 kernel needs
> quite a bit of work to work on AMD64.

First off, I'm sure the 2.6 kernel is something that is going to be a major 
work-in-progress for some time to come.  So I don't expect AMD64 support off-
the-bat in a major distro at 2.6's release.  There are a lot of unforseen 
issues and considerations.

With that said, I want to give my "personal viewpoint" on support for AMD x86-
64 and what I'd like to see within the 6 months.  This is just my "viewpoint," 
and _not_ an "expectation" (because if I "expect" something, I should get off 
my duff and help out ;-).

Ideally ...
1)  A Red Hat(R) Fedora(TM) Linux(R) Core release for AMD x86-64, at least with 
the 2.4 kernel

If this isn't available, then I would at least hope for ...
2)  Fedora(TM) SRPMS that [possibly unofficially] at least build on Red Hat(R) 
Enterprise Linux (R) WS for AMD x86-64

While I'm sure the community will work hard, along with Red Hat's continued 
management and release assistance, to produce an AMD x86-64 Fedora(TM) "Core" 
release (as well as an eventually PPC64 release as well -- or maybe that's left 
to future collaboration with "Yellow Dog"???), I don't "expect" it in the first 
6 months.

As such, I _do_ recommend that Red Hat(R), for its _own_ "market 
consideration," see that #2 is an option ASAP (e.g., within 6 months).

Again, from my perspective, I'm more than willing to pay $179/year for Red Hat 
Enterprise Linux WS for AMD x86-64, but _only_ if Fedora SRPMS built on it.  
This isn't so I don't have to pay for AS (as various servers aren't included 
with WS, and ES isn't available for x86-64) -- I _would_ buy AS for x86-64 
servers!!! -- _but_ just so I can enjoy all the other desktop stuff from Fedora
(TM) on my AMD x86-64 desktop.

That's all.

Otherwise, I could see other consumers begin to entertain ...
3)  SuSE(R) Linux(R) 9.0 Professional for AMD64

God knows I like to stick with a 100% GPL-anal distro -- I have with Red Hat 
Linux (and, subsequently, Enterprise Linux) for almost 8 years on corporate 
networks.  But if its difficult to get Fedora SRPMS to build on RHEL WS for x86-
64, I might have to look at it from a pratical/deployment standpoint.

Again, this is just some "viewpoint" and "perspective."  One way or another, 
Fedora packages _should_ come in AMD x86-64 flavors within the next 6 months -- 
even if this means you purchase RHEL WS for x86-64 and build Fedora packages 
from SRPMS.

And it's in Red Hat's own interest to guarantee it.


-- 
Bryan J. Smith, E.I.  mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org  http://thebs.org
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