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OpenBSD's Alpha Support In Trouble

Posted by timothy on from the check-your-server-closet dept.

Nimrangul writes "Hours ago Theo de Raadt put out a call for an Alpha CS20, because as of last night OpenBSD no longer has one. The CS20 that died was a build machine and without it further support for the Alpha platform would be nearly impossible. If you have a C320 or other 1U Alpha machine that you would be willing to donate to the project, please respond to the discussion on the misc mailing list."

8 of 76 comments (clear)

  1. Heh by Otter · · Score: 4, Informative
    In the next message, Matt R offers to buy one on EBay but it looks like he got sniped. (BTW, "current high bidder" has the best EBay nick I've ever seen.)

    I wish them luck, but this has to give pause to anyone who wants to place a heavy bet on the continued availability of OpenBSD/Alpha -- if it can get wiped out because they can't get a specific piece of legacy hardware to fit Theo's rack!

    --
    What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
    1. Re:Heh by Nimrangul · · Score: 3, Informative
      There are more, though mostly driveless, Alphas on eBay.

      Heck, looks like there is an exact same modeled unit for sale for the next 4 days from the same people.

      --
      I'm sick of following my dreams - I'm just going to ask them where they're going and hook up with them later.
  2. Re:Uh-oh. by MichaelSmith · · Score: 3, Informative
    Seriously though, how many people use NetBSD on Alpha machines?

    the netbsd-alpha list is pretty busy. I unsubscribed when I sold my alphas because I didn't need the mail traffic.

    --
    http://michaelsmith.id.au
  3. Re:Get the cross compiling from NetBSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative
    Cross-platform compiling does not ensure that the software actually works.

    If you want to be sure something works properly you have to have the hardware it is supposed to be working on and test to see if it works on it.

    NetBSD's setup does not actually make sure everything works, it makes sure it compiles under fake hardware.

    That's how NetBSD's support for some platforms got so bad.

  4. Re:Uh-oh. by Geekboy(Wizard) · · Score: 2, Informative

    Why would NetBSD care?

    This is OpenBSD.

  5. Re:Offtopic: Keyboard in Theo's rack. by Nimrangul · · Score: 4, Informative
    You mean one of these?

    You can get one for 54.95 $ from Fentek Industries, Inc. 470 S. Main Street, Suite G, Post Office Box 2278, Cottonwood, Arizona, 86326 USA. Shipping and handeling extra of course, state taxes may apply, duty fees may apply, void in Quebec and Tennessee.

    They actually have a few of them, check it out. And next time, use google for the words "mini keyboard".

    --
    I'm sick of following my dreams - I'm just going to ask them where they're going and hook up with them later.
  6. Re:Uh-oh. by hubertf · · Score: 2, Informative

    Which is, of course, absolute nonsense.

    FYI, NetBSD is mostly hosted by ISC, which doesn't charge hosting fees. NetBSD also runs its own colocated servers for all important servers and services. And for the financial situation in general, NetBSD is a volunteer Open Source product with no commercial backing. As such there is some need for money (mostly for running the above-mentioned machines to provide decent service), but so far this was covered fine by donations. Of course this shouldn't keep back any megacorporations lurking around here to donate a few gigabucks, I sure have some ideas on how to spend them. :)

    In short, I don't know what you're pulling out of your nose here... maybe think again before posting if you have nothing important to say.

    - Hubert

  7. Re:Alpha by iggymanz · · Score: 3, Informative

    alpha chips were made into 2003, so it's not been dead that long