x86 architecture

Ever since Apple switched to Intel processors, Macs have been able to run the most popular operating systems for the x86 architecture including Linux and Microsoft Windows.

Recent comments by a security researcher at the Hack in the Box conference imply that Intel's x86 architecture is inherently less secure than ARM, but the argument rests mainly on ARM's relative obscurity.

UNIX V7/x86 is a project by Nordier & Associates, a South Africa based company, to port Version 7 UNIX to the x86 architecture.

The first public release is version 0.8a. There is an ISO for a bootable CD with a menu installer, which is a 3.7 MB download.

Most of it is under a Berkley-style license, all of it is free of charge.

Jani Mosones has announced the release of Kiwi Linux 8.08, an Ubuntu-based distribution with support for multimedia codecs, encrypted DVDs, Flash and other desktop conveniences: "Kiwi Linux 8.08 is a desktop CD derivative based on Ubuntu 8.04.1 LTS for the x86 architecture.

It contains packages necessary for playing....

Linus has announced the availability of the final 2.6.26 kernel release, noting that several regressions got fixed toward the end of the cycle.

For those just tuning in, some of the bigger changes in 2.6.26 include PAT support in the x86 architecture, the KGDB debugger, a lot of virtualization work, and more.

The 2.6.26 merge window has opened; one of the first things to go in was the massive x86 tree.

What really caught your editor's attention, though, was the merging of kgdb for the x86 architecture. Linus Torvalds's aversion to debuggers has kept the mainline free of interactive debugger support (on x86, at least) since the beginning, forcing developers wanting debugging support to apply external patches.

That will finally change in 2.6.26.