Editing Itanium (section)

=== Linux ===
The Trillian Project was an effort by an industry consortium to port the [[Linux]] kernel to the Itanium processor. The project started in May 1999 with the goal of releasing the distribution in time for the initial release of Itanium, then scheduled for early 2000.<ref name="Sabbagh">{{cite web|last=Sabbagh|first=Dan|date=3 Feb 2000|title=Trillian releases Linux code for Itanium|url=http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2111194/trillian-releases-linux-code-itanium|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930200218/http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2111194/trillian-releases-linux-code-itanium|archive-date=30 September 2007|url-status=dead|access-date=2007-03-20|work=vnunet.com}}</ref> By the end of 1999, the project included [[Caldera Systems]], [[CERN]], [[Cygnus Solutions]], [[Hewlett-Packard]], [[IBM]], [[Intel]], [[Red Hat]], [[Silicon Graphics|SGI]], [[SUSE S.A.|SuSE]], [[TurboLinux]] and [[VA Linux Systems]].<ref>{{cite press release|date=December 20, 1999|title=Leading Linux Distributors Join the Trillian Project|url=https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/press-trillian|access-date=2007-03-20|website=Red Hat}}</ref> The project released the resulting code in February 2000.<ref name="Sabbagh" /> The code then became part of the [[mainline Linux kernel]] more than a year before the release of the first Itanium processor. The Trillian project was able to do this for two reasons:

* the [[Free software|free]] and [[Open source software|open source]] [[GNU Compiler Collection|GCC]] compiler had already been enhanced to support the Itanium architecture.
* a free and open source simulator had been developed to simulate an Itanium processor on an existing computer.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.irisa.fr/caps/projects/ArchiCompil/iato/| title = IATO simulation environment}}</ref>

After the successful completion of Project Trillian, the resulting Linux kernel was used by all of the manufacturers of Itanium systems ([[Hewlett-Packard|HP]], [[IBM]], [[Dell]], [[Silicon Graphics|SGI]], [[Fujitsu]], [[Unisys]], [[Hitachi]], and [[Groupe Bull]]). With the notable exception of HP, Linux is either the primary OS or the only OS the manufacturer supports for Itanium. Ongoing free and open source software support for Linux on Itanium subsequently coalesced at [[Gelato Federation|Gelato]].

==== Distribution support ====
In 2005, Fedora Linux started adding support for Itanium<ref>{{Cite web|last=Shankland|first=Stephen|title=Fedora for Itanium taking baby steps|url=https://www.cnet.com/culture/fedora-for-itanium-taking-baby-steps/|access-date=2023-07-04|website=CNET|date=22 March 2005 |language=en}}</ref> and Novell added support for SUSE Linux.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Connor|first=Deni|date=2005-01-06|title=Novell releases SuSE Linux for HP Itanium servers|url=https://www.networkworld.com/article/2328219/novell-releases-suse-linux-for-hp-itanium-servers.html|access-date=2021-10-14|website=Network World|language=en|archive-date=2021-10-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211029172431/https://www.networkworld.com/article/2328219/novell-releases-suse-linux-for-hp-itanium-servers.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2007, [[CentOS]] added support for Itanium in a new release.<ref>{{Cite web|title=CentOS 5 Linux released|url=https://www.itpro.co.uk/110119/centos-5-linux-released|access-date=2021-10-14|website=IT PRO|date=14 April 2007 |language=en|archive-date=2021-10-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211029170900/https://www.itpro.co.uk/110119/centos-5-linux-released|url-status=live}}</ref>

* [[Debian]] (official support was dropped in Debian 8; unofficial support available through Debian Ports until June 2024<ref>{{cite web|title=Debian Ports|url=https://www.ports.debian.org|access-date=2024-10-27}}</ref>)
* EPIC Slack - an unofficial port of [[Slackware]] - specifically supports [[IA-64]] (and hence Itanium) since its release in May 2024.<ref>{{cite web|title=Slackware for IA-64 is here! Get E P I C !|url=http://epic-slack.org/#!index.md#2024-05-15|date=2024-05-15|access-date=2025-01-26}}</ref>
* [[Gentoo Linux]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Project:IA-64|url=https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:IA-64|quote=The Gentoo/IA-64 Project works to keep Gentoo the most up to date and fastest IA-64 distribution available. <!--"The IA-64 Development Project is devoted to keeping Gentoo in good shape on the IA-64 architecture."-->|access-date=2015-07-12|archive-date=2018-09-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180916235508/https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:IA-64|url-status=live}}</ref> (releases before August 2024)<ref>{{cite web|title=Summary of Gentoo Council meeting 2024-07-21|url=https://projects.gentoo.org/council/meeting-logs/20240721-summary.txt|quote=The Council members agreed on deprecated ia64 arch|access-date=2024-08-15}}</ref> 
* [[Red Hat Enterprise Linux]] (unsupported since RHEL 6, had support in RHEL 5 until 2017, which supported other platforms until November 30, 2020)
* [[SUSE Linux Enterprise Server|SUSE Linux]] 11 (supported until 2019, for other platforms SUSE 11 was supported until 2022).
* [[T2 SDE]] supports Itanium in its [[IA-64]] port.<ref>{{cite web|title=T2 24.12 "Sky's the Limit!"|url=https://t2sde.org/#news-2024-12-19|quote=Support and stability was improved for SPARC64, Intel Itanium IA-64, Sony PS3, [...]|date=2024-12-19|access-date=2025-01-26}}</ref>

==== Deprecation ====

In 2009, Red Hat dropped Itanium support in Enterprise Linux 6.<ref name="red-hat-to-drop-itanium">{{Cite web|last=Ricknäs|first=Mikael|date=2009-12-21|title=Red Hat to drop Itanium support in Enterprise Linux 6|url=https://www.computerworld.com/article/2522241/red-hat-to-drop-itanium-support-in-enterprise-linux-6.html|access-date=2021-10-14|website=[[Computerworld]]|language=en|archive-date=2021-10-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211028172143/https://www.computerworld.com/article/2522241/red-hat-to-drop-itanium-support-in-enterprise-linux-6.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Ubuntu 10.10 dropped support for Itanium.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Clark|first=Jack|title=SPARC and Itanium support discontinued in Ubuntu 10.10|url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/sparc-and-itanium-support-discontinued-in-ubuntu-10-10/|access-date=2021-10-14|website=ZDNet|language=en|archive-date=2021-10-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211029180056/https://www.zdnet.com/article/sparc-and-itanium-support-discontinued-in-ubuntu-10-10/|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2021, Linus Torvalds marked the Itanium code as orphaned. Torvalds said:

"HPE no longer accepts orders for new Itanium hardware, and Intel stopped accepting orders a year ago. While intel is still officially shipping chips until July 29, 2021, it's unlikely that any such orders actually exist. [[He's dead, Jim|It's dead, Jim]]."<ref>{{Cite news|first=Tim|last=Anderson|title='It's dead, Jim': Torvalds marks Intel Itanium processors as orphaned in Linux kernel|url=https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/01/linux_pulls_itanium_support/|access-date=2021-10-14|work=[[The Register]]|language=en|archive-date=2021-10-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211029174912/https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/01/linux_pulls_itanium_support/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git - Linux kernel source tree|url=https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=228345bf98cd78f91d007478a51f9a471489e44a|access-date=2021-10-14|website=[[kernel.org]]|archive-date=2021-11-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211103183816/https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=228345bf98cd78f91d007478a51f9a471489e44a|url-status=live}}</ref>

Support for Itanium was removed in Linux 6.7<ref>{{Cite web |title=kernel/git/next/linux-next.git - The linux-next integration testing tree |url=https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/next/linux-next.git/commit/?id=cf8e8658100d4eae80ce9b21f7a81cb024dd5057 |access-date=2023-09-18 |website=git.kernel.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Linux 6.7 Set To Drop Support For Itanium IA-64 |url=https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.7-To-Drop-Itanium-IA-64 |access-date=2023-09-18 |website=www.phoronix.com |language=en}}</ref> and is since then maintained [[wiktionary:out-of-tree|out-of-tree]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://github.com/linux-ia64/ |title=linux-ia64 |website=GitHub |quote=Maintenance and development of the Linux operating system for Intel Itanium architecture (IA-64) |access-date=October 1, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://epic-linux.org/ |title=EPIC Linux |access-date=October 1, 2024}}</ref>