Linux 5.6 Is The First Kernel For 32-Bit Systems Ready To Run Past Year 2038

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Linux 5.6 Is The First Kernel For 32-Bit Systems Ready To Run Past Year 2038

On top of all the spectacular work coming with Linux 5.6, here is another big improvement that went under my radar until today: Linux 5.6 is slated to be the first mainline kernel ready for 32-bit systems to run past the Year 2038!..

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-5.6-32-bit-Past-Y2038

[cen1]

Good news, the sooner the better

[bug77]

Distros are dropping 32bit support left and right today, who's gonna be running 32bit Linux 18 years from now?

[9Strike]

Distros are dropping 32bit support left and right today, who's gonna be running 32bit Linux 18 years from now?

It's not just about end users but also embedded applications. Not every processor needs to be 64bit.

[FireBurn]

Distros are dropping 32bit support left and right today, who's gonna be running 32bit Linux 18 years from now?

They might be running 32bit apps still

[skeevy420]

Distros are dropping 32bit support left and right today, who's gonna be running 32bit Linux 18 years from now?

You know, 18 years ago people said the same thing about DOS and yet last month FreeDOS dropped another release candidate for the next version.

[tildearrow]

Distros are dropping 32bit support left and right today, who's gonna be running 32bit Linux 18 years from now?

Low-end smartphones and/or some IoT devices.

[stormcrow]

Distros are dropping 32bit support left and right today, who's gonna be running 32bit Linux 18 years from now?

Please. Right tool for the job. There's still 8 bit microcontrollers dutifully doing their jobs, and yes there are new projects using 32 bit (or smaller) CPUs.

This has little to do with what the flashy mainstream distributions are doing with their software base. Fedora could keel over when the Unix epoch rolls over in 2038, but if it does, it won't be the kernel's fault. What matters is making sure all CPUs supported by the kernel and their userspace hooks, libraries, and interfaces properly support the Unix epoch format in the kernel and that there's no gotchas whether it's on an ARM, Power, MIPS, etc CPU. This is irrelevant to what CPUs and user space software the distributions chose to package. This is internal plumbing to be exposed to user space to be sure everything is consistent for the 2038+ epoch when we reach that point such that someone using a 32 bit CPU (new or old) in 2038 doesn't blow up cuz of a 20 year old overlooked bug.

[oskar-n]

Distros are dropping 32bit support left and right today, who's gonna be running 32bit Linux 18 years from now?

To quote Ballmer:
Embedded, embedded, embedded!

[wizard69]

You know, 18 years ago people said the same thing about DOS and yet last month FreeDOS dropped another release candidate for the next version.

FreeDOS keeps industry running. Given that I’m not sure why anybody would back port this fix. By the time 2038 rolls around kernel 13.13.13 will be the thing.