End of an era: Linux distributions will soon stop supporting 32-bit PCs
End of an era: Linux distributions will soon stop supporting 32-bit PCs
"""
Google already took this leap back in 2015, dumping 32-bit versions of Chrome for Linux. [as did ZFS and Docker]

Ubuntu’s Dimitri John Ledkov put forth a proposal (https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2016-June/039420.html) to wind down 32-bit support on the Ubuntu mailing list recently. Ledkov points out that Ubuntu wants to limit the number of new 32-bit installations, with Ubuntu 16.10. This next release will not offer a 32-bit Ubuntu Desktop or Ubuntu Server image. The software could still be installed for legacy compatibility purposes via more traditional installers. By Ubuntu 18.10 in October 2018, Ubuntu would completely end support for 32-bit software and encourage running it in a virtual machine or container instead.

Fedora has made similar choices. Fedora Server no longer offers a 32-bit image as of Fedora 24. A proposal to dump all 32-bit images in Fedora 24 failed, and Fedora 24 still offers 32-bit versions of Fedora Workstation. However, Fedora no longer considers them important. As the developers put it during the meeting, no one wants to support the 32-bit images. I’d expect to see Fedora stop releasing 32-bit images within the next few releases, too.

OpenSUSE Leap hasn’t even offered 32-bit images since its inception.
[...]
Thankfully, 32-bit Linux distributions will continue to exist for a long time. The recently released Ubuntu 16.04 LTS will be supported for five years until 2021. Even after many of the big Linux distributions stop releasing new versions for 32-bit hardware, there will be Linux distributions out there specializing in support for this older hardware.
"""
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3089509/linux/end-of-an-era-linux-distributions-will-soon-stop-supporting-32-bit-pcs.html


Debian i386 architecture now requires a 686-class processor (May 2016)
"""
Last year it was decided to increase the minimum CPU features for the i386 architecture to 686-class in the stretch release cycle. This means dropping support for 586-class and hybrid 586/686 processors[1].(Support for 486-class processors was dropped, somewhat accidentally, in squeeze.)

This was implemented in the Linux kernel packages starting with Linux 4.3, which was uploaded to unstable in December last year.

In case you missed that change, gcc for i386 has recently been changed to target 686-class processors and is generating code that will crash on other processors. Any such systems still running testing or unstable will need to be switched to run stable (jessie).

The older processors will continue to be supported in jessie until at
least 2018, and until 2020 if i386 is included in jessie LTS.

[1] The following processors, supported in jessie, are now unspported:

* AMD K5, K6, K6-2 (aka K6 3D), K6-3
* DM&P/SiS Vortex86, Vortex86SX
* Cyrix III, MediaGX, MediaGXm
* IDT Winchip C6, Winchip 2
* Intel Pentium, Pentium with MMX
* Rise mP6
* VIA C3 'Samuel 2', C3 'Ezra'
"""
https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2016/05/msg00001.html
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3089509/linux/end-of-an-era-linux-distributions-will-soon-stop-supporting-32-bit-pcs.html

Labels: Oleg Zabluda

- posted by Oleg Zabluda @ 7:27 PM | permalink | | | technorati | bloglines | feedster

 
Free Fonts
Free Fonts
"""
SIL Open Font License enabled the rise of the free font movement, making Linux a practical choice for designers and artists. Today, it is the most popular free license for fonts, although few know its story.
"""
http://www.linux-magazine.com/Issues/2016/190/Free-Fonts
http://www.linux-magazine.com/Issues/2016/190/Free-Fonts

Labels: Oleg Zabluda

- posted by Oleg Zabluda @ 6:55 PM | permalink | | | technorati | bloglines | feedster

 
Coloured dots
Coloured dots
"""
I’ve noticed that when an object is seen from a distance in daylight, the colours appear changed. For example when I observed my wife walk round a lake in Switzerland, her pink top looked white and her blue trousers looked pink from 600 metres or more away. Do surfaces need to be sufficiently large in our field of view for us to perceive their colours correctly?

In the centre of your visual field there Is a small area that is effectively blue-blind. This “foveal tritanopia" means that objects with colours that differ onlv in how much blue they contain become indistinguishable when they are very small about the size of a tennis ball viewed from the other end of the court. So white and yellow will look identical, as will red and magenta, or blue and black.

This phenomenon has been known empirically for a long time. Naval signalling flags are designed so they cannot be confused even when viewed at a distance where this effect could manifest itself. Similarly, heraldic rules forbid a yellow emblem on a white background or vice versa, or blue on black, and so forth.

Roger Carpenter Professor of Oculomotor Physiology University of Cambridge, UK
"""
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0262407916315731

Labels: Oleg Zabluda

- posted by Oleg Zabluda @ 6:40 PM | permalink | | | technorati | bloglines | feedster