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28 years after the final Intel 486 desktop CPUs rolled off assembly lines, Linux is finally dropping support for it (www.pcgamer.com)

submitted 2 days ago by Sunshine@piefed.zip to c/linux@programming.dev

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[–] Feyter@programming.dev 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Exactly! Just because there is support for a stone age CPU in the Linux Kernel, doesn't mean every single modern Linux compatible software is running smoothly on this.

Of course, from the Mac/Windows point of view it was the correct thing to ditch such old stuff. Because they are concerned about having a stable product that is running on modern hardware. Keeping this old stuff in, makes it more complicated to maintain their system and therefore more suspectable to errors.

Linux could only keep this support up for so long, because somewhere there where people that though it would be worth care about for 28 years. And even now it's not over. You can modify the kernel and patch 486 support back in again on your own. So "incomparability" doesn't really exist with a open system. It's just that nobody at the core kernel team will do this service for you anymore.