Drop 32bit Haiku?

There’s a lot of broken stuff in 32bit and it’s becoming more problematic.

It might make sense in the near future to just roll Haiku as x86-64 only and leave a branch for 32b for bug fixes and beos compatibility.

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Why 32b ? Any computers made on last 10 yra that aren’t 86-64 ???

Even riscv, miops and arm are 64b now

So… I just throw away my current travel laptop?
Funnily enough, not dropping 32bit like a hot potato (like many linux distros) Is a main reason I use Haiku. Personally I don’t care /that/ much about BeOS compat, but I do care about supporting my perfectly fine 32bit hardware.
Surely “its slow” or “it has less memory” aren’t reasons for Haiku? It is the most usefull OS I’ve had on such older laptops.

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Bugreports or it didn’t happen.

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The compiler toolchains are leaving 32b behind, newer versions of c++ etc.

I’m not saying get rid of 32b, but at some point it becomes very not “beos” to hold onto what is clearly deprecated technology. The best thing to do post r1, is just freeze 32b as a long term release that gets bug fixes.

Now if someone can implement the “compatibility layer” for 32b on 64b, and it comes with minimal overhead for maintenance, rock on.

Scratch whatever makes you itchy though

As to your 15+ yr old laptop, seems like a problem you should adress.

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What problem…?

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Which toolchain has removed support for 32-bit x86?

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I don’t see any gain for the Haiku project in dropping the 32bit version before reaching R1 and alienating the community members that rely on it.

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Yes it looks like someone is inventing problems that don’t exist to make an excuse for dropping 32bit support?

32bit is there, it has essentially zero cost to keep it there now that it’s done.

Now that looks like a significantly more complex project to me, mainly because it doesn’t exist yet. It’s hard to beat “it’s already done and stable for the last 10 years” in terms of work needed :slight_smile:

Anyway, the 32bit API will be killed by the year 2038 bug wether we like it or not. So if you want 32bit to go away, all you have to do is ignore it for a few more years.

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Wouldn’t it be ironic if 32bit Haiku is the only thing that works post 2038?

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OpenBSD 32bit has already fixed the unix32 bug, so that won’t happen.
The BeOS compatible api will either not work, or work with wrong timestamps. The native api can use 64bit timestamps.

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I wish I could predict the future like you. I almost wish we had a remind me bot in here.

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This is not the future, this is already done work (on OpenBSD) and work we can’t do (changing the time_t definition to 64bit will break BeOS compatibility). If we break BeOS compatibility, really we don’t have any reason to support 32bit machines in 2038 (we may have “15 years old laptops” right now but by then it will be “30 years old laptop” and that will not make any sense to use, hopefully).

Unless civilization collapses, and there are no more new machines available and we all have to work with old ones. But for that there’s another project, have a look at CollapseOS. Surely they have better plans than us to survive such an event.

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Great, now I wish I could find my old SoundPlay license.

Dear @BlueSky !

Let me delight it with a little bit modified classical song for you how I see this

Getting Better – of The Beatles (and a bit of me)

[Intro: Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison]
It’s getting better all the time

[Verse 1: Paul McCartney (& John Lennon and George Harrison)]
I used to get mad at my thread (No, I can’t complain)
The devs who served me weren’t cool (No, I can’t complain)
You’re holding me down (Ah-ah), turning me 'round (Ah-oh)
Filling me up with your rules (Fool, you fool)

[Chorus: Paul McCartney (& John Lennon and George Harrison)]
I’ve got to admit it’s getting better (Better)
A little better all the time (It can’t get no worse)
I have to admit it’s getting better (Better)
It’s getting better since you’ve been mine

[Verse 2: Paul McCartney]
Me used to be angry young man
Me hiding me head in the sand
You gave me the word, I finally heard
I’m doing the best that I can

[Chorus: Paul McCartney (& John Lennon and George Harrison)]
I’ve got to admit it’s getting better (Better)
A little better all the time (It can’t get no worse)
I have to admit it’s getting better (Better)
It’s getting better since you’ve been mine
Getting so much better all the time!
[Post-Chorus: Paul McCartney (& John Lennon and George Harrison)]
It’s getting better all the time
(Better, better, better)
It’s getting better all the time
(Better, better, better)

[Verse 3: Paul McCartney and John Lennon]
I used to be cruel to my audience
I hurt them and kept them apart from the things that they loved
Man, I was mean but I’m changing my scene
And I’m doing the best that I can (Fool, you fool)

[Chorus: Paul McCartney (& John Lennon and George Harrison)]
I admit it’s getting better (Better)
A little better all the time (It can’t get no worse)
Yes, I admit it’s getting better (Better)
It’s getting better since you’ve been mine
Getting so much better all the time!

[Post-Chorus: Paul McCartney (& John Lennon and George Harrison)]
It’s getting better all the time
(Better, better, better)
It’s getting better all the time
(Better, better, better)

[Outro: Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and George Harrison]
Getting so much better all the time!

:stuck_out_tongue:

Dear @KitsunePrefecture, I happen to be a big Beatles fan, so thank you. :smile: That said, I would prefer if you comment on topics on this forum in concise, plain sentences. We all have limited attention spans (at least I do) and it is much simpler and faster to read.

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The SoundPlay author give a licence for free long time ago. Let me check if I found the link for it.

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Please don’t.

I have some 32 bit only software. It is nice to have BeOS binaries running. I also have 32 bit only computers and Haiku is one of good candidates for them.

I am against of obsolescence of functional hardware. There are a lot of functional 32 bit x86 hardware for now. It also cause garbage environment problem.

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Why? It is purely API design problem unrelated to 32/64 bit. Nobody stops making new function returning int64 UNIX time for 32 bit OS.

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Hmmm … I think I should have time-traveled to John and Paul to sing up my version for you … in that way it would have shorter time to struggle over my content.

Well, … next time I may consider that way … for your comfort. :wink:

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