Re: Is 386 processor still supported?

["Maciej W. Rozycki" <macro@linux-mips.org>]

On Thu, 15 Jan 2009, Alan Cox wrote:

> > userland support with little burden for both Linux and respective user 
> > software maintainers.  Certainly it adds some bloat to the kernel, but I 
> > think it is not an option that should be outright dismissed without 
> > consideration.
> 
> Nobody normally builds for 386 (and you need the big FPU emulator etc too
> and pay a big penalty for the lack of working WP bits) so it wouldn't be
> a big penalty if you can actually find an i386 user any more ;)

 You can actually escape the FPU emulator if you have a proper computer 
(an i386/80287 combo, anyone? ;) -- we've got it right actually :) ), but 
the rest and overall I agree with you.  And I think i386-class cores can 
be still seen in some embedded applications, so there may be non-epsilon 
interest yet.

  Maciej