Re: linux-next requirements

From: Ingo Molnar
Date: Sun Feb 28 2010 - 02:24:36 EST



* Rafael J. Wysocki <rjw@xxxxxxx> wrote:

> > In fact those rare ways of building and booting the kernel i mentioned are
> > probably used _more_ than half of the architectures that linux-next
> > build-tests ...
>
> I don't know and you don't know either. That's just pure speculation and
> therefore meaningless.

We know various arch (and hardware) usage stats, such as:

http://smolt.fedoraproject.org/static/stats/stats.html

Today's stats, done amongst users who are willing to opt in to the Smolt
daemon:

x86: 99.7%
powerpc: 0.3%

x86 used to be 99.5 a year ago, so the world has become even more x86-centric.

There's also the kerneloops.org client, which shows in excess of 95% x86 usage
as well. You can also grep the linux-kernel folder for arch signatures, etc.

And yes, there are millions of ARM (and MIPS) CPUs running Linux as well.
(They are only as present as present their developers are: the users almost
never show up on linux-kernel.)

Plus, a kernel subsystem maintainer like me who does lots of kernel
infrastructure work can have a pretty good gut feeling about which
architectures are actively helping out Linux, and which are just hanging on to
the bandwagon.

So i respectfully disagree with your 'pure speculation' bit. Yes, it's
somewhat of a guessing game, as so many things in life - but the trend is very
clear.

Ingo
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