maddog: Letter to InfoWorld: Linux 64-bit since 1995!

[Jon maddog Hall]

bill at bfccomputing.com said:
> Oh, and given the amount of work it took me to port POV-Ray to Alpha  (32-bit
> pointer assumptions everywhere) I can see why Microsoft wasn't  chomping at
> that particular bit. 

But the work eventually had to be done, didn't it?  When we started Alpha Linux,
Jim Paradis wanted to make a 32-bit version because he was afraid all the
free software would take a lot of porting.  I told him that I did not think
that would be the case, since a lot of the software already ran on Digital
Unix, and already had been ported to 64-bits.  Actually, good code with proper
type-casting does not need much, if any, porting just to get it to work.  He
tried a few packages and agreed with me.  He then "tidied up" the 32-bit port
he was working on and joined Linus in the 64-bit port.

md

md
-- 
Jon "maddog" Hall
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