Post Syndicated from original https://lwn.net/Articles/920259/

Code that is added to the kernel can stay there for a long time; there is
code in current kernels that has been present for over 30 years.
Nothing is forever, though. The kernel development community is currently
discussing the removal of two architectures and one filesystem, all of
which seem to have mostly fallen out of use. But, as we will see, removal
of code from the kernel is not easy and is subject to reconsideration even
after it happens.