The Linux kernel’s port to the DEC Alpha processors remains alive over 30 years after these processors first appeared.
Sent out yesterday was a pull request for the DEC Alpha code with the sole change of introducing another maintainer for the Alpha port. That change is now merged for Linux 6.18 with having another recognized maintainer of the Alpha code within the Linux kernel.
Magnus Lindholm is the newest maintainer for the Linux kernel’s Alpha port. Magnus Lindholm joins Richard Henderson and Matt Turner as the others continuing to maintain this legacy support within the kernel. The commit will be part of the Linux 6.18-rc6 kernel due out on Sunday.
There isn’t too much active code churn within the Alpha code of the Linux kernel but at least now there is one more person stepping up to maintain the nostalgic hardware. Much of the “arch/alpha” code churn is adapting to tree-wide kernel changes and other mostly maintenance related work, but in any event this DEC Alpha support remains in the mainline Linux kernel all these years later.
