Linus Torvalds has long discussed dropping Intel 486 CPU support from the Linux kernel, and now a concrete step has been taken. A patch by Ingo Molnar, accepted into the 'tip' branch, removes i486 support from the build system, meaning no i486-compatible kernel image can be built starting with Linux 7.1. No mainstream Linux distribution currently supports the 486, so real-world impact is expected to be minimal. The 486 would follow the Intel 386, which was dropped back in 2012.
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