Re: [PATCH 00/31 v2] PTI support for x86_32

[Linus Torvalds]

On Sat, Feb 10, 2018 at 1:15 AM, Adam Borowski <kilobyte@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Alas, we got some data:
> https://popcon.debian.org/ says 20% of x86 users have i386 as their main ABI
> (current; people with popcon installed).

One of the issues I've seen is that people often simply move a disk
(or copy an installation) when upgrading machines.

Does Debian make it easy to upgrade to a 64-bit kernel if you have a
32-bit install? Because if not, then it's entirely possible that a lot
of people started out with a 32-bit install (maybe they even had a
64-bit kernel, but they started when the 32-bit install was the
default one), and never upgraded their kernel.

It really should be easy to _just_ upgrade the kernel. But if the
distro doesn't support it, most people won't do it.

                Linus