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Good News! CERN is Migrating Over 2,200 Control Systems to Debian 13 (itsfoss.com)
submitted 3 days ago by VetOfTheSeas@discuss.online to c/linux@lemmy.world
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[-] oce@jlai.lu 69 points 3 days ago

The reason is old hardware support:

The reason for all that was a compiler flag. When Red Hat builds RHEL, it picks a minimum CPU generation the software will run on. RHEL 9's cutoff already excludes CERN's oldest boards, the kind running chips like Intel's old Core 2 Duo, which comprises about 47 percent of their fleet.

RHEL 10 raises that cutoff again, and this time even newer Ivy Bridge-generation boards, another 17 percent, fall on the wrong side of it.

[-] 0x4f1@lemmy.world 23 points 3 days ago

Core 2 Duo, wow! Present day raspberry pi is likely faster and much more power efficient. Not to mention security considerations.

[-] frongt@lemmy.zip 3 points 3 days ago

Yes, but unlikely to support what CERN needs to do.

[-] prettybunnys@piefed.social 2 points 2 days ago

Like sitting in the form factor of a laptop from 2012 that can rest between these two cabinets

[-] esc@piefed.social 2 points 3 days ago

Debian is also planning on raising the bar.

[-] palordrolap@fedia.io 5 points 3 days ago

Yes, but not yet, which is all CERN needs for now.

They'll undoubtedly switch to something else in a few years if they continue to favour hardware retention over software compliance.

Spiralling off into rampant speculation, I can imagine they might end up finding some way to create their own in-house Linux distro that supports old hardware if all the stock distros raise the bar out of the reach of what they have, but I'm sure they hope that's a way off yet.

But it could be a good thing for folks outside CERN with old hardware if that ever comes to pass.

[-] oce@jlai.lu 3 points 2 days ago

Also they are sponsoring the maintenance to match their needs.

Either path depends on Debian's LTS and ELTS programs staying healthy, which is part of why CERN has started sponsoring Freexian, the Debian-focused services company behind those support programs.

[-] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 days ago

They killed off 32bit machines but that is the existent of it for now

this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2026
346 points (98.9% liked)

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