[kde-solaris] KDE Solaris: status update

[Stefan Teleman]

On Monday 13 November 2006 17:03, Lars. Tunkrans wrote:
> Stefan ,
>
> Why do we need  64 bit  KDE  on Solaris  ?
> Does  any of the Desktop stuff need  more than 4 GB virtual memory 
> in KDE 3.5 ?
> Does the 16 extra  registers in opteron 64 bit mode make that big
> differance
> that its worth doing this transition now ?

Hi Lars!

Well, i agree with you that > 4GB VM doesn't appear to be a stringent 
need right now. Maybe it will become a need in the future.

But, Sun's product development practices pretty much require the 
availability of software in both 32- and 64- bit. A lot of this is 
tradition (this is how Sun "does things"), and another lot of it is 
simply Sun keeping up with the times, with the competition, and -- 
most importantly -- creating interest amongst developers. 64-bit KDE 
has been available on Linux for a while now. Solaris can't leave 
itself to fall behind on this bitness bragging right. It could very 
well be that, for specialized varieties of highly technical 
computing, 4GB VM for a workstation is just not enough any more, 
especially considering that RAM has become so cheap these days.

The other aspect -- one that i am very interested in -- is the 
possibility that, on UltraSPARC, userland software could be built and 
delivered for different versions of UltraSPARC, depending on one's 
available hardware. UltraSPARC-III (V9B) is significantly faster than 
UltraSPARC-II (V9A). This option with building and delivering for 
different UltraSPARC's depending on hardware is just a plan of mine 
at this point, though. Let's get the basics done first. :-)

--Stefan

-- 
Stefan Teleman          'Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition'
steleman at nyc.rr.com                          -Monty Python