Update and simplify list of architectures. Thanks Karl Goetz. Closes: #567234

[developers-reference.git] / resources.dbk

diff --git a/resources.dbk b/resources.dbk
index 2dc049906f3f5e62a6f4fb42fa567b30ac3fbab2..57b3824f18faf2c02783c0a0f65be812ea79f1bd 100644 (file)
--- a/resources.dbk
+++ b/resources.dbk
@@ -424,9 +424,8 @@ url="&url-debian-db-mail-gw;"></ulink>.
 <title>The Debian archive</title>
 <para>
 The &debian-formal; distribution consists of a lot of packages
-(<filename>.deb</filename>'s, currently around
-&number-of-pkgs;) and a few additional files (such as
-documentation and installation disk images).
+(currently around &number-of-pkgs; source packages) and a few additional
+files (such as documentation and installation disk images).
 </para>
 <para>
 Here is an example directory tree of a complete Debian archive:
@@ -526,32 +525,23 @@ Nowadays, these exist only in the Section header fields of packages.
 <para>
 In the first days, the Linux kernel was only available for Intel i386 (or
 greater) platforms, and so was Debian.  But as Linux became more and more
-popular, the kernel was ported to other architectures, too.
+popular, the kernel was ported to other architectures and Debian started
+to support them. And as if supporting so much hardware was not enough,
+Debian decided to build some ports based on other Unix kernels, like
+<literal>hurd</literal> and <literal>kfreebsd</literal>.
 </para>
 <para>
-The Linux 2.0 kernel supports Intel x86, DEC Alpha, SPARC, Motorola 680x0 (like
-Atari, Amiga and Macintoshes), MIPS, and PowerPC.  The Linux 2.2 kernel
-supports even more architectures, including ARM and UltraSPARC.  Since Linux
-supports these platforms, Debian decided that it should, too.  Therefore,
-Debian has ports underway; in fact, we also have ports underway to non-Linux
-kernels.  Aside from <literal>i386</literal> (our name for Intel x86), there
-is <literal>m68k</literal>, <literal>alpha</literal>,
-<literal>powerpc</literal>, <literal>sparc</literal>,
-<literal>hurd-i386</literal>, <literal>arm</literal>,
-<literal>ia64</literal>, <literal>hppa</literal>,
-<literal>s390</literal>, <literal>mips</literal>,
-<literal>mipsel</literal> and <literal>sh</literal> as of this writing.
-</para>
-<para>
-&debian-formal; 1.3 is only available as <literal>i386</literal>.  Debian
+&debian-formal; 1.3 was only available as <literal>i386</literal>.  Debian
 2.0 shipped for <literal>i386</literal> and <literal>m68k</literal>
-architectures.  Debian 2.1 ships for the <literal>i386</literal>,
+architectures.  Debian 2.1 shipped for the <literal>i386</literal>,
 <literal>m68k</literal>, <literal>alpha</literal>, and
-<literal>sparc</literal> architectures.  Debian 2.2 added support for the
-<literal>powerpc</literal> and <literal>arm</literal> architectures.
-Debian 3.0 added support of five new architectures: <literal>ia64</literal>,
-<literal>hppa</literal>, <literal>s390</literal>, <literal>mips</literal>
-and <literal>mipsel</literal>.
+<literal>sparc</literal> architectures.  Since then Debian has grown hugely.
+Debian 5 supports a total of twelve architectures: <literal>alpha</literal>,
+<literal>amd64</literal>, <literal>arm</literal>,
+<literal>armel</literal>, <literal>hppa</literal>,
+<literal>i386</literal>, <literal>ia64</literal>, <literal>mips</literal>,
+<literal>mipsel</literal>, <literal>powerpc</literal>,
+<literal>s390</literal>, <literal>sparc</literal>.
 </para>
 <para>
 Information for developers and users about the specific ports are available at