On 13 Jan 2023, at 21:03, Luck, Tony [off-list ref] wrote:

quoted

For what it's worth, Debian and Gentoo both have ia64 ports with active
users (6.1 looks like it currently fails to build in Debian due to a
minor packaging issue, but various versions of 6.0 were built and
published, and one of those is running on the one ia64 Debian builder I
personally have access to).

Jess,

So dropping ia64 from the upstream kernel won't just save time of kernel
developers. It will also save time for the folks keeping Debian and Gentoo
ports up and running.

Are there people actually running production systems on ia64 that also
update to v6.x kernels?

If so, why? Just scrap the machine and replace with almost anything else.
You'll cover the cost of the new machine in short order with the savings on
your power bill.

Hobbyists, same as alpha, hppa, m68k, sh and any other such
architectures that have no real use in this day and age.

Jess