On Wed, Jan 05, 2000 at 03:37:06PM -0600, Bill Wendling wrote:
> } > I think that before 38 years is up, none of us will be using 32-bit
> } > machines so, even if I was 10 years old, I wouldn't bother 'fixing'
> } > 32-bit machines. Even Intel's new stuff is 64 bits.
> }
> } Incidentally this is the exact argument that reportedly was used against
> } those who warned about the Y2K problen in late seventies/early eighties!
> }
> There's certainly a correlation (sp?) between the two and it would be
> ironic if it happened again. However, here's why I think it won't:
>
> Noone uses old machines for very long. How many of you are still using a
> PDP-10 (30+ years ago) or an Apple classic (20- years ago) for "real"
> work?
>
> I'll put my foot squarly in my mouth and predict that, in 38 years,
> people will think that running anything on a machine less than 1GHz speed
> for a production machine is nothing short of insanity.
Some areas like computer technology in satelites are technology wise back
by over a decade. Similar embedded controllers where you want the smallest
(read cheapest) system that can do the job.
> But, then, there are always the hobbyists...but, then, they can "fix" the
> kernel themselves? :)
A friend of mine is still occasionally making money with PDP 8 software.
Some of these systems are being used for control of industrial machines
which keeping up with the version number bloat of the industry was not
necessary and, the hardware seems to be rock solid so they're still
running the same software after all these decades.
How old are these machines today?
Ralf
-- "Embrace, Enhance, Eliminate" - it worked for the pope, it'll work for Bill.- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
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