Re: Future of 32-bit distro (was: rebase-4.4.3-1 regression: Too many DLLs for available address space)

[Vince Rice <vrice@solidrocksystems.com>]

> On Jan 12, 2018, at 12:11 PM, Yaakov Selkowitz wrote:
> 
> On 2018-01-12 03:13, Corinna Vinschen wrote:
>> On Jan 11 22:52, Denis Excoffier wrote:
>>> The full list contains 8006 lines, i have the complete Cygwin 32bit installation
>> 
>> The bottom line of this is, and it has been said before and I can't
>> stress this enough, we can't support this scenario at all, for the
>> simple fact that we have more DLLs than fit into the 32 bit address
>> space.  It's not much of a problem on 64 bit, but on 32 bit it's just
>> not feasible anymore.
>> 
>> Ultimately, You should (must) not install all of Cygwin on 32 bit, only
>> the set of stuff you need on top of the base category.  Or install 64
>> bit Cygwin.
> 
> If it is not possible for the entire 32-bit distribution to function as
> a whole, is it time to reconsider how much we provide for 32-bit?  And
> when can we just drop 32-bit entirely?

I have no dog in this hunt: I'm currently 64-bit (Windows and Cygwin). Having said that…

I think this is an extreme reaction. 32-bit Windows isn't going away anytime soon (as in not in the next five and probably more like ten years). There's nothing wrong with Cygwin-32. No one* needs to install all of Cygwin (And for those running 32-bit Cygwin on a 64-bit Windows, a giant rhetorical WHY?!?!). For many (most?) of us who use a relatively small part of Cygwin, there is no issue with the 32-bit address space. (I never had a problem when I ran 32-bit, which I did through last year (on a 32-bit Windows.)

For those that install everything out of laziness, well, that's not going to work anymore (and, from reports, hasn't worked very well for quite some time). But that's no reason to punish everyone else. There's also no reason to stop creating 32-bit packages. 32-bit Windows has limited address space. This isn't new, and it isn't news. If you run out of space, you run out of space. Switch to 64-bit or do without something. But it's not a reason to force everyone (on 32-bit windows) to do without everything.


*Within three decimal points.
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