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Linus Torvalds has signaled it's time to drop i486 CPU support from the Linux kernel, citing zero real reason to maintain it. Ingo Molnar authored a patch removing the CONFIG_M486SX, CONFIG_M486, and CONFIG_MELAN Kconfig build options, which is queued for the Linux 7.1 merge window. This first step prevents building an i486 kernel image; actual code removal will follow in a later kernel series to reduce maintenance burden from complex 32-bit hardware emulation facilities.

Linux 7.1 To Begin Removing i486 CPU Support

this is fine, 486 cpus , as great as they where, i really haven’t seen on running in recent memory, and sure , you can still compile and run an older kernel if you want to run the system, i can see it happening in some embedded or very remote systems that have this cpu ( for some reason ) that are hard or impossible to replace ( like nuclear reactors or satellites ) , tho i doubt any other updates are possible for these systems anyway , moves saves a lot of code , maintenance and reduces binary size also frees up time for newer and more relevant hardware

I wondered 486? What’s that? Pentiums? Not quite. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/vintagecomputing/comments/yfbtis/linux_kernel_may_drop_i486_support_as_torvalds/?rdt=52904#:~:text=I%20guess%20586%20(Pentium)%20instructions,cloudy%20above%20Pentium(s)%20class%20CPUs." target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">What an interesting look at history</a>…

Since I used 486 and 486SX systems from 1994 to 1999 and newer had the chance to use them again, it’s OK and exceptions can be handled exceptionally.