[Info-vax] The attempts to keep Linux on Itanium (attempt number 0x7fff_ffff)

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 11/21/2023 1:36 PM, Simon Clubley wrote:
> There's been another batch of moaning from some people wanting to
> keep Linux running on Itanium:
> 
> https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/21/saving_linux_on_itanium/
> 
> My question is _WHY???_ are people still wanting to run Linux on
> Itanium for goodness sake ?
> 
> Unlike other obscure architectures that Linux runs on, you can't
> even emulate Itanium systems in a full-system emulator - you need
> the actual expensive, noisy, power-hungry, etc, hardware to run it on.
> 
> Huh ???

The commercial interest must be zero. Rare, EOL and expensive
hardware. No software requiring it - I assume there are no software
packages only available for IA-64 and not for x86-64 and
no custom applications written in IA-64 assembler.

But hobbyist interest is different. Hobbyists like stuff
even if it is commercially dead. And some hobbyists like
old hardware as well. There are significant hobbyist
interest for VAX, PDP-11 and PDP-10. Why not for Itanium??

Arne