More to think on for the Fedora Linux change proposal to drop 32-bit support - as the popular Bazzite would have to shut down. Note: read the previous GamingOnLinux article first to get up to speed on what's going on.
As a major update on all this the creator of Bazzite, Kyle Gospodnetich, jumped into the official Fedora Forum to give some of their thoughts and they didn't hold back on what it would mean for Bazzite. A distribution that has become increasingly popular for handhelds with their gaming focus.
Gospodnetich stated it pretty clearly a post:
As much as I’d like this change to happen, it’s too soon. This change would kill off projects like Bazzite entirely right as Fedora is starting to make major headway in the gaming space. Neal Gompa already pointed out basic use cases that would be broken even if someone built the packages Steam itself needs to function.
It’s also causing irreparable damage to Fedora from a PR standpoint. I have been inundated all day with people sharing news articles and being genuinely concerned Steam is gong to stop working on their Fedora/Bazzite machines. I would argue not only should this change be rejected, the proposal should be rescinded to limit further damage to Fedora as a project.
Perhaps open a separate one to talk about changing build architecture to build fewer 32-bit packages?
And when pushed further Gospodnetich stated it again, plainly:
I’m speaking as it’s founder, if this change is actually made as it is written the best option for us is to just go ahead and disband the project.
Ouch.
For people repeatedly saying to just use the Flatpak of Steam, that wouldn't work either for the use case of projects like Bazzite and how most of their users actually use the project to be like SteamOS, where it boots into a special gamescope session for Steam Big Picture Mode - it just wouldn't work with it.
Right now, I don't believe the proposal will go through as-is for Fedora 44, it's simply too soon.
The ideal scenario would be for Valve to be convinced to bring the Steam client on Linux to 64-bit, which would solve a lot of problems for everyone. It's not all about Steam though it would also cause issues for OBS Studio game capturing, FEX for Fedora's x86 emulation on aarch64 and more.
Realistically though, as I pointed out in the initial article covering it on GamingOnLinux, Fedora's user share on Steam is low to the point Valve likely won't care until more distros do it which will delay it even further.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
About the author - Liam Dawe
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly checked on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. You can also follow my personal adventures on Bluesky.
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Pyrate a day ago
Didn't think this would be nearly as bad as I thought yesterday. Especially some of the - sorry for saying - pretentious comments as the ones quoted by the users above, really give a bad tatse and make even myself start the idea of looking elsewhere with such attitude, that seed is planted now, Fedora.
Seriously, nothing I dislike more than people making potentially catastrophic decisions, while also being so smug about it. Like, the problem for me isn't the proposal itself, rather the attitude driving it.
For Bazzite, unrelated but this just made me truly realise and actually accept the Bazzite devs when they said 'we're not a distro', clearly, if such a change, even as significant as this, jeprodizes the whole project, because they can't handle it. This is just an observation, not an attack or anything, I was always like 'come on guys, Bazzite IS a distro'.
This brings me to another point I want to share, and I really like this about open source software, it's that because everything is out in the open, and there's really no heirachy or any official job roles, what I really like is how everyone's voice does matter, and the open source devs are put at the highest levels of scrutiny that I've seen; one small mistake (like this proposal being effortlessly reverted and pretwnd like nothing happened) and you risk your whole reputation goodbye. This is great, it (hopefully) ensures ill-intentioned individuals to burn down when they try something stupid.
Seriously, nothing I dislike more than people making potentially catastrophic decisions, while also being so smug about it. Like, the problem for me isn't the proposal itself, rather the attitude driving it.
For Bazzite, unrelated but this just made me truly realise and actually accept the Bazzite devs when they said 'we're not a distro', clearly, if such a change, even as significant as this, jeprodizes the whole project, because they can't handle it. This is just an observation, not an attack or anything, I was always like 'come on guys, Bazzite IS a distro'.
This brings me to another point I want to share, and I really like this about open source software, it's that because everything is out in the open, and there's really no heirachy or any official job roles, what I really like is how everyone's voice does matter, and the open source devs are put at the highest levels of scrutiny that I've seen; one small mistake (like this proposal being effortlessly reverted and pretwnd like nothing happened) and you risk your whole reputation goodbye. This is great, it (hopefully) ensures ill-intentioned individuals to burn down when they try something stupid.
2 Likes
Fedora tends to do this kind of thing more than other distros. It probably wasn't the best choice for a Bazzite base. That said, surely Bazzite can just build these packages or base the distro off of something else.
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tmtvl a day ago
It'd be neat if the Bazzite devs would join forces with the Arkane Linux (https://arkanelinux.org/) devs to make a distro. The quality of Arch + the stability of an immutable distro with the Arkane tooling would be fantastic.
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poiuz a day ago
But that being said, you just dont f**k with legacy stuff.Because Steam is legacy software… (but this explains a lot).
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The Linux space is far less political than it was in the early years, what on earth are you talking about?
Seriously, I got involved with Linux for political reasons back around 2000, maybe before. At the time, there were constant arguments between the Eric Raymond faction and the Richard Stallman faction; everyone was talking about the Free Software Foundation. The concept of Free Software, or Open Source depending on your preference, was seen as politically groundbreaking; the anti-corporate current was a tide compared to the trickle of today. Linux space "becoming" politicized, what nonsense.
Seriously, I got involved with Linux for political reasons back around 2000, maybe before. At the time, there were constant arguments between the Eric Raymond faction and the Richard Stallman faction; everyone was talking about the Free Software Foundation. The concept of Free Software, or Open Source depending on your preference, was seen as politically groundbreaking; the anti-corporate current was a tide compared to the trickle of today. Linux space "becoming" politicized, what nonsense.
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rea987 a day ago
Because Steam is legacy software… (but this explains a lot).
In a sense that it was released 21 years ago; yes.
Then expanded into 3 different OS& architectures, regularly updated, receiving new features quite often, got at least 3 UI overhaul switches, is the backbone of Windows and Linux gaming.
Legacy software, sigh...
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poiuz 22 hours ago
Then expanded into 3 different OS& architectures, regularly updated, receiving new features quite often, got at least 3 UI overhaul switches, is the backbone of Windows and Linux gaming.That's my point: Its actively maintained. You claim that removing 32bit software f**** with legacy software. It doesn't, there are enough solutions to solve this issue. The only issue is the actively maintained Steam because Valve is a crappy developer. What a great backbone that is… (but that's no wonder given Valve's Windows roots).
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It's not hoping that Valve swoops in, it's demanding that a multi-million $ company does its f****** job & fix their client. Its pathetic that isn't 64bit, yet.
What about my 32 bit games? I care more about that than Steam
I also don't really know why software should be 64 bit if it doesn't need to be or why an OS would want to drop 32 bit support.
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Xpander 16 hours ago
Because Steam is legacy software… (but this explains a lot).
Where did i say anything about steam?
Steam probably will get the 64bit treatment sooner or later, iIwas talking about all the legacy stuff like native games or applications that don't have active development
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@poiuz the problem they'd run into would be two fold and you'd have to put 32 bit libraries in anyways to be able to install. If bazzite is its own fork they can add back in the 32 bit libraries unless they flat out remove and all ability to do that which is going to kill any game that isn't written for 64 bit which means older games that work now will be screwed
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poiuz 15 hours ago
What about my 32 bit games? I care more about that than Steam
@poiuz the problem they'd run into would be two fold and you'd have to put 32 bit libraries in anyways to be able to install. If bazzite is its own fork they can add back in the 32 bit libraries unless they flat out remove and all ability to do that which is going to kill any game that isn't written for 64 bit which means older games that work now will be screwedRun it in a container.
I also don't really know why software should be 64 bit if it doesn't need to be or why an OS would want to drop 32 bit support.Because it costs resources (which are scarce) to maintain it (in terms of people who invest time & actual resources to build it on computers). For what benefit? It's enough that we have few projects who maintain compatibility, the rest can use that in one way or another (e.g. Debian or FreeDesktop runtime or even Valve's runtimes).
Just to answer it: "But then I can just go ahead & use Debian". Yes, you can. But there are good reasons why aren't simply using Debian today. These reasons are of less importance if you want to run legacy software.
Where did i say anything about steam?Steam should be of the few affected software. You should be able to run all other software in some form of containers, but you can't run Steam in a runtime if you want to use it as your shell (as pointed out by the Bazzite devs). But that's Valve's because they simply need to update Steam.
Steam probably will get the 64bit treatment sooner or later, iIwas talking about all the legacy stuff like native games or applications that don't have active development
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Xpander 13 hours ago
You should be able to run all other software in some form of containers, but you can't run Steam in a runtime if you want to use it as your shell (as pointed out by the Bazzite devs). But that's Valve's because they simply need to update Steam.
Don't you also need 32bit GPU drivers then? even if all the rest is containerized
edit:
but anyway as a end user i don't really care much if i have extra packages installed on my system for legacy games/applications
as a developer or package maintainer ofc i u can see why its just waste of resources to deal with
Last edited by Xpander on 26 Jun 2025 at 8:16 pm UTC
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I don't really understand why "run it in a container" is, by itself, a solution.
Like, the issue here is some Fedora devs don't want to maintain certain 32-bit things that 32-bit applications need in order to run, yes?
So, "run it in a container" puts those exact same 32-bit things inside the container instead of out in the OS, yes?
So, the issue after "run it in a container" is some container-related devs won't want to maintain certain 32-bit things that 32-bit applications need in order to run. This is better how? Worse still, potentially you could have different container solutions with separate maintenance for every damn application, instead of one solution per primary distro.
If there were a project that did a generic 32-bit-app container that worked across all apps and distros, I suppose that would potentially reduce duplication of effort. Short of that I don't see the advantage.
Like, the issue here is some Fedora devs don't want to maintain certain 32-bit things that 32-bit applications need in order to run, yes?
So, "run it in a container" puts those exact same 32-bit things inside the container instead of out in the OS, yes?
So, the issue after "run it in a container" is some container-related devs won't want to maintain certain 32-bit things that 32-bit applications need in order to run. This is better how? Worse still, potentially you could have different container solutions with separate maintenance for every damn application, instead of one solution per primary distro.
If there were a project that did a generic 32-bit-app container that worked across all apps and distros, I suppose that would potentially reduce duplication of effort. Short of that I don't see the advantage.
1 Likes
Run it in a container.
Because it costs resources (which are scarce) to maintain it (in terms of people who invest time & actual resources to build it on computers). For what benefit? It's enough that we have few projects who maintain compatibility, the rest can use that in one way or another (e.g. Debian or FreeDesktop runtime or even Valve's runtimes).
I'll be honest, I don't even know what that means and I've been gaming on PC as far back as I can think, essentially my whole life.
All I'm seeing when I read stuff like this is we're heading back into "Linux is too complicated and gamers will stick to Windows" territory again.
I suppose there's a reason an actual for-profit company with a focus on gaming had to step in and actually make gaming on Linux viable, i.e. Valve. As well-intentioned as hobbyists and other companies may be, they just lack the focus on gaming and sometimes it seems there's no real focus at all.
I guess we need to wait for SteamOS itself to make it to desktops and home theater boxes first
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All I'm seeing when I read stuff like this is we're heading back into "Linux is too complicated and gamers will stick to Windows" territory again.
This is exactly my sentiment.
I've used Windows since 1999. My Linux journey began when the Steam Deck was released. I was curious as to how Valve was able to make all these Windows-based games in my collection work on a Linux-based system. I began to really enjoy the "open" nature of it.
That was about as far as I got with it for a while.....and then Windows 11 started getting pushed to end users, and that OS was such a big turn-off to me and a huge step backwards in design and logic compared to 7 & 10 that I immediately started looking for other solutions, knowing that 10 would lose support by October of this year. So, 2 months ago, I came across Bazzite, and I have been neck-deep in learning it and getting all my games running on it, learning virtual machines, what Linux is all about, what commands I need to know, how Linux works, and now even following Linux news.
..and now I find out that the OS I chose might just end overnight right after I just jumped ship from Windows?
This is REALLY not a good look for Linux coming from a non-Linux person. I'm literally the "target audience" that Linux is trying to appeal to in terms of getting large amounts of users to bail on Windows, and this is the PERFECT time to do it with Windows 11's problems and Windows in the middle of a transition to a different philosophy of how they're going to handle gaming and gaming devices and how that relates to their OS. RIGHT NOW is when Linux operating systems needs to be pulling Windows users (particularly gamers) over to their "side," not displaying that they don't actually have the stability and dependability that the user wants/needs to continue utilizing their OS.
As a brand new Bazzite user (and Linux user in general), it's really disappointing to hear this news about Bazzite. So, with that, is there a distro that provides the same kind of experience that Bazzite does that I could try out? I'm particularly interested in a distro that is similar to the security that Bazzite offers (immutable distro, OpenSUSE, etc.)....are there any alternatives anyone could recommend for a Linux n00b?
Thanks.
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