Linux's 32-Bit Kernel Has Been Buggy Since Being Mitigated For Meltdown

[dungeon]

The title of this article bothers me. When I read "32-Bit Kernel", I thought it meant *all* 32-bit architectures that Linux supports. It should probably be renamed to say "32-bit x86 kernel", so that people with ARM or something don't get confused like I was.

Not only that by title should mention Intel only, since AMD is not affected by Meltdown If someone runs 32bit kernel on AMD CPU nothing happens since kpti do nothing there.

But yeah, it sounds like entire 32-bit is broken everywhere, which is far from truth even when it comes to just x86 32-bit

[skeevy420]

I totally agree with you.

You gave the mmo example, but many PS3/X360 games were not optimized either, yet they were realesed. It just proves how better hardware can make some people lazy by forgetting about optimization. Habit from PC maybe? Yet there are still people trying to squeze every single bit from Amiga. A subtle difference in aproach to programming if you ask me.

The reality is very simple and it proves but also defends your points. A pc that hospital receptionist has isn't there for the sake of 50+ open tabs. Nor running benchmarks. Check in which room is patient X. When is doctor Y available. Is drug Z on the stock should order be made for new supplies. I bet all hospitals that still have 32bit machines needs to upgrade their hardware. It's not only that you need 64bits for such computations. But it's even more important than patients themselves.

If the hospital is set up right then most of that is handled by a server in the back. They'd still need a relatively modern setup to handle multiple video and audio streams as well as possibly routing landline or cellular calls, access and update databases like patient information and supplies on hand, emails, document editors, and more all going on at once in an environment where every single second matters because lives are at stake.

Yeah, all that can be done on an older setup without problems, I just don't want to die because that fucking hourglass keeps on spinning and spinning so they can't pull up my allergy records to know what they can safely give me in an emergency.

[Azrael5]

Nope; based on the exact wording of the question asked it's negative 32 bits.



32bit - 64bit = -32bit

Math ain't hard people.

ahahahah I know you are ignorant. Those values are algebraic exponents. The difference is between 2³² and 2⁶⁴. You don't understand the difference between arithmetic progression and geometrical progression. So 32 is not a half of 64. 32bit is not a half of 64bit.

[skeevy420]

ahahahah I know you are ignorant. Those values are algebraic exponents. The difference is between 2³² and 2⁶⁴. You don't understand the difference between arithmetic progression and geometrical progression. So 32 is not a half of 64. 32bit is not a half of 64bit.

I was treating it like it was a question that you'd get in the first week of algebra and just having a little fun. You know the saying, ask stupid questions and you get stupid answers. You kept asking a stupid question so I gave you a stupid answer.

I know damn well that 33 is double 32, 34 is double 33, and so on an so forth in the binary context and that it progresses exponentially.

[Azrael5]

I was treating it like it was a question that you'd get in the first week of algebra and just having a little fun. You know the saying, ask stupid questions and you get stupid answers. You kept asking a stupid question so I gave you a stupid answer.

I know damn well that 33 is double 32, 34 is double 33, and so on an so forth in the binary context and that it progresses exponentially.

You have issued that you ignore that 32 bit system is a half of 64 bit system when 64 is an exponent. So that, while 32bit is a bottleneck, you missed to tell that 64 bit is not a bottleneck. 4.294.967.296 bits are not a half of 1,84467440737e+19. Make the difference ignorant! Problem doesn't occurr between 32bit or 64bit but because of space memory allocation.

[DebianXFCE Jr]

If the hospital is set up right then most of that is handled by a server in the back. They'd still need a relatively modern setup to handle multiple video and audio streams as well as possibly routing landline or cellular calls, access and update databases like patient information and supplies on hand, emails, document editors, and more all going on at once in an environment where every single second matters because lives are at stake.

Yeah, all that can be done on an older setup without problems, I just don't want to die because that fucking hourglass keeps on spinning and spinning so they can't pull up my allergy records to know what they can safely give me in an emergency.

I look at a planet as a whole. Not only my particular case or country. What about 3rd world countries? Just because I have a budget or newer hardware doesn't mean that everybody does. I always try to take every single possibility under consideration.

[skeevy420]

I look at a planet as a whole. Not only my particular case or country. What about 3rd world countries? Just because I have a budget or newer hardware doesn't mean that everybody does. I always try to take every single possibility under consideration.

So do I; that doesn't change requiring the use of best the possible hardware available in critical environments like hospitals where every second matters.

I also consider that 3rd world country argument to be a scapegoat or a strawman. Older 32bit hardware uses more power and that alone would mess with a low quality power grid in 3rd word country with next to no infrastructure. In that instance low powered ARMs and APUs make the most sense since they're both affordable, perform well enough, are modern and supported, use little power, are readily available, and are more solar/green energy capable when compared to older and modern desktop hardware.

Another thing to really consider when talking about the 3rd world are various sanctions countries have over one another and what they're able to even source, shipping weight fees and import/export fees, and more. The weight from power supplies let alone older, larger cases, heat syncs, bigger motherboards, etc all skew the upfront costs towards ARM and embedded APUs as being the cheaper of the options of modern and older hardware. Older x86_32 laptops and portables are heavy for what they are and have hard-to-find to nonexistent replacement batteries making them not very ideal either not to mention that modern 32bit Atom portables can be found for similar prices with available replacement parts.

Once one considers upfront costs to even get the hardware shipped, the actual costs of hardware, the effect to the infrastructure, the abilities to offset the infrastructure drain, the ability to upkeep and maintain the hardware, especially the ability to even source the hardware long-term for maintenance, and the ability to use and update software compatible with older hardware, older hardware makes next to no sense at all for the 3rd world unless it the their only possible option such as there are no alternatives due to sanctions.

[skeevy420]

You have issued that you ignore that 32 bit system is a half of 64 bit system when 64 is an exponent. So that, while 32bit is a bottleneck, you missed to tell that 64 bit is not a bottleneck. 4.294.967.296 bits are not a half of 1,84467440737e+19. Make the difference ignorant! Problem doesn't occurr between 32bit or 64bit but because of space memory allocation.

You know, responding to everything by calling everyone ignorant makes you look like the ignorant person; especially so because I explained that it was a joke, which should have been obvious from the get-go, and that I understood the concept of exponential progression and, yet, you still responded with name calling and then moved some non-existent goalposts to then try to make yourself appear smart which just makes you look like such an ignorant smartass.

[pal666]

Sorry for off topic, but there's a huge performance gain with allocating a disk space in Steam under Linux. It takes few seconds now to prepare space for ~50GB. While on Windows 7 it's taking minutes and makes Windows crawl.

filesystem access in general is horribly slow on windows

[Ardje]

This is why everyone should use 16-bit kernel. It's proven itself for decades, and is immune against anything modern, because shit just won't even run.

There are enough running a 16 bit kernel, but it just isn't linux.