Update: Canonical are now saying 32bit libraries will be "frozen" and not entirely dropped.
Original article:
Things are starting to get messy, after Canonical announced the end of 32bit support from Ubuntu 19.10 onwards, Valve have now responded.
Speaking on Twitter, Valve dev Pierre-Loup Griffais said:
Ubuntu 19.10 and future releases will not be officially supported by Steam or recommended to our users. We will evaluate ways to minimize breakage for existing users, but will also switch our focus to a different distribution, currently TBD.
I'm starting to think we might see a sharp U-turn from Canonical, as this is something that would hit them quite hard. Either way, the damage has been done.
I can't say I am surprised by Valve's response here. Canonical pretty clearly didn't think it through enough on how it would affect the desktop. It certainly seems like Canonical also didn't speak to enough developers first.
Perhaps this will give Valve a renewed focus on SteamOS? Interestingly, Valve are now funding some work on KWin (part of KDE).
Looks like I shall be distro hopping very soon…
To journalists from other websites reading: This does not mean the end of Linux support, Ubuntu is just one distribution.
Quoting: rustybroomhandleWonder how this affects Ubuntu derivatives.System76 already said Pop will continue 32bit, becoming maintainers themselves if they have to. System76 are smart, their users are the desktop, they at least understand their own market.
what one 'humbug' in the discussion at phoronix shared
fascinating...
Quoting: MilesYYYyyyah.... I'll be considering switching to another distro too. If I'm an enterprise user, I would VERY much look toward something else like Debian right now too.
lol good point.
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Steam-Linux-Network-One-Line
If you're affected (I am with recent kernel fixes) launch Steam this way :
steam -tcp
Quoting: ThormackQuoting: gojulSteamOS being Debian-based, recommending Debian or Mint/Debian would make a lot of sense. But it is true that Debian is not for beginners.
Agreed. Pure Debian is tricky to install, configure and maintain (compared to Ubuntu).
Perhaps Mint-Debian then...
Who knows.....
Installing Debian is tricky for newbies. Maintaining it is not harder than Ubuntu provided you're using stable.
Looks like Valve may not use a Debian-based distro : https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/155794864305471497/591834042437992448/Screenshot_20190622_053640.png
It's true that from a packager perspective RedHat tools are much more handy than Debian tools.
Personally Id like to see a renewed focus on SteamOS however I guess its more likely they throw their support behind Debian or maybe Manjaro.
Last edited by Coolit on 22 June 2019 at 8:12 am UTC
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