Intel's 486 processor, launched in 1989, is reaching the end of its support life with the upcoming Linux 6.15 kernel. Linus Torvalds, a key figure in the Linux community, believes it's time to drop support for this aging architecture due to its minimal usage and the additional complexity it adds to development. Senior developer Ingo Molnár echoed this sentiment, noting how supporting antiquated CPUs causes unnecessary compatibility issues. The 486 is the last major chip family to be dropped since support for the 386 ended in 2012, with future kernels focusing on more modern CPUs like the original Pentium.
Linus Torvalds stated, 'I really get the feeling that it's time to leave i486 support behind. There's zero real reason for anybody to waste one second of development effort on this kind of issue.'
Ingo Molnár highlighted that supporting ancient 32-bit CPUs creates compatibility issues that can divert developer time from more productive tasks.
Torvalds previously expressed support for dropping the 486, saying in 2022, 'Maybe we should just bite the bullet, and say that we only support x86-32 with 'cmpxchg8b' (ie, Pentium and later).'
The switch to dropping support for i486 marks a continuation of Linux's trend, as it will be the first major chip family unsupported since 2012.
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