Re: Architecture baseline for Forky

Well said, 100% agree with Jan-Daniel! Killing off an arch like Power8 that i=
s still very useable is not ideal. Power8 should remain in Debian and is not=
 a =E2=80=9Cretro computing=E2=80=9D platform.=20

> On Oct 26, 2025, at 8:54=E2=80=AFPM, Jan-Daniel Kaplanski <jd.kaplanski@ao=
l.de> wrote:
>=20
> =EF=BB=BF
>>=20
>> Because that's 15 years and Debian's purpose is not to enable retrocomput=
ing projects.
> Huh? What is Debian's purpose then? It even boasts about its broad hw supp=
ort on the "Reasons to use Debian" page.[1]
>=20
> Besides, the armhf baseline of armv7-a+fp aligns with the Cortex-A8 from 2=
005[2]. I highly doubt that archaic architecture has a lot of users besides S=
BCs up to the generation of RPi 2 and legacy embedded systems that are likel=
y EOL too. Especially since aarch64 came in 2012 with armv8-a on the Cortex-=
A53/A57[3][4].
>=20
> POWER8 went EOSL in 10/2024[5] (only a year ago, which in my books is far a=
way from being a "retrocomputing" platform btw), plus POWER9 systems will re=
ach the end of standard service on 31st Jan 2026[6], so by the time Forky is=
 around in 2027 POWER9 will be obsolete too. Considering that, it's reasonab=
le to ask for POWER8 to be supported beyond 2028, or in a more radical manne=
r, move the baseline to POWER10 instead.
>=20
> ---
>=20
>> As a general guidance I would like to aim for a ten to 15 years support r=
ange
>> at release time.
> I take issue with that, as this approach does neither reflect on the actua=
l user base nor the shelf life of a given architecture. There is the risk yo=
u kill off a platform too early when it still has an active user base. It on=
ly works in regards to POWER8/POWER9 because those have a 10 year span from r=
elease to EOL. Rather than "release + 15 years" I feel like it should be "EO=
L + X years", though there should be debate on what that "X years" may be.
>=20
> ---
>=20
> That's just my personal take on this as someone who is not involved in act=
ive development but likes to keep tabs on what's happening. =46rom the persp=
ective of a systems administrator, I'm not really fond of the idea of having=
 to switch to a different OS because the platform is killed off on the basis=
 of an arbitrary time frame.
>=20
> Cheers, JD
>=20
> [1]: https://www.debian.org/intro/why_debian.en.html
> [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_Cortex-A8
> [3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_Cortex-A53
> [4]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_Cortex-A57
> [5]: https://www.ibm.com/new/announcements/ibm-power8-end-of-service
> [6]: https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/announcements/services-withdrawal-discont=
inuance-service-select-power-systems-products-replacements-available
>=20