FreeBSD/i386 demoted to Tier 2 for FreeBSD 13.x

eternal_noob

eternal_noob

Hi,

i have a very weak machine with low RAM running FreeBSD 12.2 i386.
i386 because i found that it runs much smoother than the amd64 variant (lower memory footprint).

Now i am reading FreeBSD/i386 demoted to Tier 2 for FreeBSD 13.x and i have questions.

I want to update this machine to 13.0 when it goes live (of course!) but i want to avoid the amd64 architecture because of the aformentioned reasons.

But the mail says:

However, EN and SA issues that are specific to i386, or that require unique development for i386, may not be addressed.
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What are EN and SA? Is it common that issues are ENs / SAs?

For branches beyond 13.x (e.g. 14.x), the FreeBSD Project reserves the right to reduce the amount of support provided.
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What does that mean? No bugfixes? No forum support for i386 anymore?

Should i rather install amd64 and forget about i386?
Sorry if this sounds silly but this is my first contact with Tier 2 architecture ever. ?
 
EN = errata notice, SA = security advisory
So you will get ENs & SAs, unless they're specific to i386. Which is very unlikely.
Branches beyond 13.x: i386 will be Tier-2 after ~2024?. No, you shouldn't install amd64 when i386 runs smoother on your machine.
 
freebsd_noob said:
No forum support for i386 anymore?
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We'll still try to help you here, supported -RELEASE and -STABLE version questions are fine, regardless of the architecture's tier. We have helped out many users of other Tier2 architectures, like ARM, MIPS and PowerPC. But you may find other users just don't know the answers because it's not a common platform anymore. The number of users that use i386 is dropping quite quickly. So you may or may not get the answers you're looking for..
 
SirDice said:
The exact difference between Tier 1 en 2 is explained here: https://docs.freebsd.org/en/articles/committers-guide/#archs
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Thanks. I think i'll use amd64 next because
Tier 2 platforms are functional, but less mature FreeBSD platforms. They are not supported by the security officer, release engineering, and port management teams.
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And i heard that 13.x will be much more performant than 12.x so i should give it a try.

Edit: By the way, the german translation of https://www.freebsd.org/de/platforms/ still shows i386 as tier 1 for 13.x, you might want to update that page.
 
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