Linus Torvalds wants to end Linux kernel support for i486 processors

Lead Linux developer Linus Torvalds is considering removing support for older i486 processors from the Linux kernel. He calls the hardware irrelevant and thinks it’s too much work to keep up with it.

Torvalds mentions his concerns in an email exchange with other developers of the Linux kernel. The Linux founder says in it that he “doesn’t think the i486 class is still relevant.” It specifically concerns support for old Intel processors with an i486 architecture. Processors running on it were first introduced in 1989, but according to a number of kernel developers, several pieces of hardware that run on it have been released in recent years. Torvalds says there are so few examples of this that he wants to stop support. “We discontinued i386 support in 2012. Isn’t it time to do that for i486 in 2022?” he wonders.

It is not the first time the proposal has been made. That also happened a year earlier, but then there were still developers who spoke out against it. Torvalds says that “from a kernel developer perspective” there is no relevant reason to continue support. He is writing in another email that it takes a lot of time and work to continue supporting the hardware. Not only would there be hardly any such hardware left to run Linux, but the code often doesn’t work anymore.