[OpenIndiana-discuss] sparc support

[Saso Kiselkov]

On 1/23/14, 10:09 PM, Volker A. Brandt wrote:
>> On 1/23/14, 1:41 AM, Ben Taylor wrote:
>>> I am looking at decom'ing some sparc hardware in Chicago, and have found
>>> someone willing to host the hardware out there, on the agreement that
>>> someone is going to actively use the hardware for the sparc port.  Any
>>> volunteers?
>>
>> We've had this discussion on the Illumos side about a year ago. The
>> hardware wasn't the issue. It was the volunteers (save for a single
>> brave soul, nobody wanted to deal with it).
> 
> ...which is not quite how I remember it; several people including me
> offered hardware, hosting, and porting help.  There were long and
> emotional discussions, yes; and ultimately nothing came of it.
> But it was definitely more than one person, and there still is
> some interest as can be seen by the continued use of Martin Bochnig's
> OpenSXCE.

Well, I should have expanded a bit more.

I only got a single request for an account on the build farm I set up.
It's possible there's more people out there who are willing to put in
the hours (Martin being one example), but I didn't see them.

Also, the infrastructure (hardware/hosting/whatever) wasn't the problem.
As you said, several people offered that (including myself, and I
actually built it, configured it and made it publicly available). But
the fact is, nobody stepped forward to actually take responsibility for
getting the work done.

But by all means, do get your hands dirty and get a port up and running.
I assure you Illumos will happily accept back patches which fix any
breakage that might have happened, or new features for the port. I try
my hardest not to break SPARC when I develop Illumos stuff, but it's not
my area of focus or interest.

Cheers,
-- 
Saso