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Old 1st July 2011
passthejoe passthejoe is offline
Real Name: Steven
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Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 30
Default I can tell you for sure that Sparcstation 5 is 32-bit

As a Sparcstation 20 owner and user with OpenBSD and other OSes, I can confirm that the Sparcstation 5 is a 32-bit system.

OpenBSD runs great on it, but you will not be able to run any "modern" web browser aside from Lynx in the console.

There is a whole lot more flexibility in sparc64 in OpenBSD, FreeBSD, Linux and Solaris.

Running Solaris 9, I managed to get Firefox running, but there basically are no browsers in packages for recent releases of OpenBSD.

Way back, you could run Dillo in OpenBSD for Sparc 32-bit, but that is no longer an option.

The selection of packages for 32-bit Sparc in OpenBSD gets smaller all the time, especially desktop packages. I suppose that reflects the platform's continual aging.

Based solely on my own experience, if a binary package exists for Sparc 32-bit in OpenBSD, it stands a very good chance of running. Not so much in NetBSD.

But if there's no binary package for a particular app in OpenBSD's 32-bit Sparc repository, chances are it won't build from the port (otherwise it would be a binary package already).

One thing about OpenBSD for 32-bit Sparc. The base system runs extremely well and is extraordinarily stable. Makes a great box for all the usual OpenBSD tasks, and you can use it as a desktop if you're determined and won't miss a traditional GUI web browser.
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