PowerPC 40x Support Slated For Removal From The Linux Kernel

[phoronix]

Phoronix: PowerPC 40x Support Slated For Removal From The Linux Kernel

Following the original, first-generation PowerPC CPU support being removed in the Linux 5.10 kernel, the original PowerPC 400 series is also looking like it will now be removed as well from the kernel...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=PowerPC-40x-400-Linux-Removal

[skeevy420]

Dropping this PowerPC 400 series (pre-440) support allows freeing up a few thousand lines of code within the kernel tree.

That's, what, 5% of what AMDGPU uses?

[iamjustalittlefox]

Soon we gonna get to the point to drop i386 i486 i586 i686 what the hell lets drop all the legacy hw support who cares about retro enthusiast and those who running their infrastructure on legacy hardware. Now that all this junk is out of the way let's hire pottering to start integrating SystemD into the linux kernel. After 1-2 years being comfortable with his new role he can overtake the Linux kernel development from Linus and Linux can be renamed to SystemDUX or SystemDUCKS.

[hax0r]

These Linux guys are really good with removing code instead of fixing and making current hardware more robust and maintaining support for past devices, I call for removal of x86 and keyboard support, ARM and nice touchpad should be enough, haven't these guys upgraded their legacy hardware yet?

[kpedersen]

They might as well remove it from the kernel. What good is a kernel that supports an older architecture if the rest of the Linux userland is shite and cannot be run on reasonable hardware.
Linux is not the right tool for the job anymore for lots of use-cases. But many here won't care because the Linux port of the Steam DRM service doesn't run on non-x86* anyway.

[andrei_me]

"I can't use my 90s CPU on a 2021 kernel mimimimi"

Try to run windows on them so

[Mangix]

Soon we gonna get to the point to drop i386 i486 i586 i686 what the hell lets drop all the legacy hw support who cares about retro enthusiast and those who running their infrastructure on legacy hardware. Now that all this junk is out of the way let's hire pottering to start integrating SystemD into the linux kernel. After 1-2 years being comfortable with his new role he can overtake the Linux kernel development from Linus and Linux can be renamed to SystemDUX or SystemDUCKS.

So keep out of tree patches. Compiling your own kernel is not difficult...

You could also just stick to 4.4. It's super LTS.

[Alexmitter]

Phoronix comment section BS check-list:
AMDGPU Large - Check
Poettering Bad - Check
SystemD Bad - Check
Muh 90s Hardware - Check

[timofonic]

What about removing bugs from the kernel too?

[NateHubbard]

What about removing bugs from the kernel too?

Isn't removing old unmaintained code part of that?

If people want to run ancient hardware, they are going to find that they need to run ancient software on it as well.