User Plea Means EISA Support Not Removed From Linux

jones_supa writes A patch was proposed to the Linux Kernel Mailing List to drop support for the old EISA bus. However a user chimed in: "Well, I'd like to keep my x86 box up and alive, to support EISA FDDI equipment I maintain if nothing else — which in particular means the current head version of Linux, not some ancient branch." Linus Torvalds was friendly about the case: "So if we actually have a user, and it works, then no, we're not removing EISA support. It's not like it hurts us or is in some way fundamentally broken, like the old i386 code was (i386 kernel page fault semantics really were broken, and the lack of some instructions made it more painful to maintain than needed — not like EISA at all, which is just a pure add-on on the side)." In addition to Intel 80386, recent years have also seen MCA bus support being removed from the kernel. Linux generally strives to keep support even for crusty hardware if there provably is still user(s) of the particular gear.

Comments

Crusty Hardware

[Anonymous Coward]

I find it hard to believe that anyone is using EISA still. It got almost no traction in desktops and the only systems that ever had EISA slots were 386-486 era servers before the VL-BUS and PCI bus started to gain traction in late 486's.

If someone actually has a working EISA system, I'd like to see a photo. I had never managed to see more than one of these systems in my lifetime, and only saw one because it was being replaced in 1997 by a Pentium desktop.

I've actually seen more MCA systems than I've ever seen EISA.

Re:Crusty Hardware

[Penguinisto]

I'm surprised to see someone still using it myself (I've seen a few of them in the distant past, though...)

On the other hand, this is some hella stark contrast to certain other OS makers, who go out of their way to dump support for something as soon as they can in order to keep you on that upgrade treadmill - even if it means being forced to buy new hardware.

Re:Crusty Hardware

[Penguinisto]

So basically you want Apple and Microsoft to keep supporting your crusty old hardware with new features that it doesn't support anyway?

You're approaching it from the hobbyist/end-user viewpoint - turn in your geek card, please. The corporate/enterprise side of things will actually keep hardware around a whole hell of a lot longer, and industrial use cases keep old crap around the longest of all.

Example? No problem, I got a ton of those, including this little gem I dealt with a couple of years ago: Company spent millions on a certain specialized (solar cell) wafering machine whose computer still uses a parallel port (remember those?)/ It's a year or two out from ROI when it breaks down, but the manufacturer won't update or repair anything w/o the company spending millions on a new machine. Why? Because they stopped issuing patches/drivers for the machine long ago when Microsoft decided to drop their OS support, and the old stuff won't support USB enough to allow for a USB/Parport adapter.

This has fuck-all to do with fanboy ideology, and everything with having to keep systems up in situations where they need to.

Re:Crusty Hardware

[morgauxo]

What the fuck are you talking about?

I've watched my parents throw away perfectly good printer/scanner combos that were only a few years old because there were no drivers beyond XP.

I have dozens of network and video adapters on a shelf in my garage that work great in Linux but have no Windows drivers beyond XP.

Until recently even a 386 could run Linux!

Linux vendor? I wouldn't know. I've never used one. I can install my own software thank you!

Re:Crusty Hardware

[armanox]

Apple and Microsoft are far behind in terms of support from what I see.

SGI IRIX 6.5: 1998-2014
Solaris 10: 2005-2021
Solaris 11: 2011-2024
If I want long term support, I know I'm not going for a Windows systems or a Linux box. Know where to go for it (I'm sure that IBM and HP have some long lifecycles too....but I'm less versed in AIX, i, HP-UX, and OpenVMS)

Re:The end of an era.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Linus Torvalds was friendly about the case"

They did it, they neutered him.

Torvalds is in general very reasonable. It's just when people push him with unreasonable requests that he bites back hard.
Like when that guy wanted the kernel to be ported to C++ for no other reason than object orientation being the fad of the year.
That was hilarious.

Re:The end of an era.

[Penguinisto]

They did it, they neutered him.

Bullshit. He's harsh on coders who fuck up (and rightfully so), but I have never seen him unleash the Kraken on any reasonable user request.

Old hardware / technology never dies,...

[rstanley]

It just gets renewed, reused, and recycled, not only in more wealthy Western countries, and Third World countries, but by poorer people all over the world. (Hopefully with Linux and other FLOSS software installed!) There was an article in Slashdot in 2013 about an IBM 402 with punch cards, still in use!!! (I wonder if it could run Linux?) ;^)

But seriously, even though most of us are using computer less than 5 years old, a lot of old computers are still in use. What about 16 bit embedded systems, many running Linux! I have to agree with Linus, if the old technology in the kernel, does not adversely affect newer technologies, and people are still using it, then there is a legitimate reason for leaving it in the kernel. I trust his opinion.

IMHO, I think the FLOSS community has an obligation to continue to support older hardware & technologies that certain other proprietary O/S manufactures have long ago abandoned. Isn't that one of the reasons the Free Software and Open Source Software communities, and software were created in the first place?