From: ldo@nz.invalid   
      
   On Wed, 1 Oct 2025 12:11:43 +1300, David Goodwin wrote:   
      
   > IIRC the *reason* for the i860 port first, and then the MIPS port,   
   > was to ensure that the operating system was developed from the start   
   > with portability in mind.   
      
   We already know that one of the design goals for Windows NT from the   
   beginning was “portability in mind”. The question was whether it   
   achieved that. Ultimately, it did not.   
      
   > So the MIPS port achieved its purpose. Once the job was done,   
   > Microsoft sold their hardware designs to MIPS Technologies who used   
   > it as a basis for a line of workstations until SGI bought the   
   > company.   
      
   So, having done the port and climbed that mountain, it was realized   
   that climbing portability mountains in a proprietary OS is hard, and   
   so the Windows NT team soft-pedalled that particular design goal from   
   that point on ... ?   
      
   >> The MIPS version of NT didn’t last long, either.   
   >   
   > The MIPS version was never very popular to begin with - today the   
   > hardware is flying pigs rare.   
      
   I already mentioned that MIPS processors outship x86 by about 3:1,   
   last I checked. You wouldn’t call x86 “flying pigs rare”, would you?   
      
   > By late 1996 no one was buying Windows NT for MIPS systems anymore, so   
   > Microsoft stopped maintaining it.   
      
   People still buy them and run Linux on them, which is why Linux still   
   continues to support them.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)