Next Week's Kernel Summit Will Try To Take On The 2038 Problem

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Next Week's Kernel Summit Will Try To Take On The 2038 Problem

Taking place next week is the Linux Kernel Summit in Chicago alongside the 2014 LinuxCon North America. We'll be providing live coverage next week while one of the early kernel summit sessions already being discussed online is a goal of trying to further the Linux solution to the year 2038 problem...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTc2Mjg

[mark45]

There should be no 32bit CPUs by then.

Or switch from i386/i686 to x32, the past 5-10 years the requirements for an OS are pretty much the same, so while i686 is buggy and too limited, x32 should be OK for at least a few decades.

[My8th]

x32 needs a 64-bit cpu though. Also some computers from 30 years ago are still being used for some tasks. 32-bit platforms of today will still be used by a few 30 years from now. They might make up 0.000000000.........1 percent of computers but still.

[doom_Oo7]

They could break compatibilit? for Linux 4! And computers from 30 years ago certainly won't run 3.16 anyway...

[mark45]

x32 needs a 64-bit cpu though. Also some computers from 30 years ago are still being used for some tasks. 32-bit platforms of today will still be used by a few 30 years from now. They might make up 0.000000000.........1 percent of computers but still.

That few users certainly don't matter.
Support for 20+ years Intel CPUs has been dropped from Linux already, phoronix link, old GPUs have also been banned from Mesa (phoronix covered it extensively), so Linux isn't extremely backwards compatible, which is good.

[wizard69]

This isn't rocket science. Double the data size and force user space to update. We have 24 years to get ready, those that can't don't deserve to be running Linux.

[mark45]

This isn't rocket science. Double the data size and force user space to update. We have 24 years to get ready, those that can't don't deserve to be running a recent version of Linux.

Unfortunately there a decision taking ultra-conservative morons who won't take this for an answer.

[erendorn]

There should be no 32bit CPUs by then.

32 bit CPU can do computations on 64 bit ints...

[Akdor 1154]

There should be no 32bit CPUs by then.

Did you read the article? This is addressed in like the first paragraph.

[ncopa]

There should be no 32bit CPUs by then.

Let me quote from the article you didn't read:

So 2038 brings the end of time for 32bit architectures. It being some
twenty four years ahead, it may seem like there is plenty of time for folks
to migrate to 64bit architectures that are (mostly) unaffected by this
issue. However, 32bit processors are still being produced today in
extremely high volumes, and many of those systems are being used in
commercial, industrial and medical environments, where these systems may be
quite literally embedded into the walls and machinery and are expected to
run for 25 years or more. As these small systems become more and more
pervasive, the risks of major trouble in 2038 grow. And that?s to say
nothing of the impact on future classic-car resale prices for fancy cars
like the Tesla when the high end in-dash display won?t work (gasp!).

Thus, the ?just upgrade to 64bit? solution isn?t really sufficient,