>> IIUC one of the main use-cases of the i386 port nowadays is to support >> running old (proprietary) i386 binaries in virtual machines. As long as >> that's kept as one of the goals, then indeed you should be fine if you >> can find some other kernel (either from an older Debian or one you >> compiled yourself) > Actually, you don't need a virtual machines to run i386 binaries -- you just > need the i386 shared libraries. An x86_64 cpu can *natively* run i386 code, > and a x86_64 kernel can load 32-bit programs and run them in 32-bit mode.
Indeed, the VM is not need to make the program work, but it's needed to make it tolerable to run the program (given the security risks of running such legacy proprietary software). === Stefan
