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Canonical planning to drop 32bit support with Ubuntu 19.10 onwards

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As you might have heard by now, Canonical has made the decision to drop 32bit support from Ubuntu 19.10 onwards.

Writing on the mailing list, as well as this post on Ubuntu's Community Hub, Canonical gave a reminder that the decision isn't coming without warning. It was proposed last year and it was followed up with another post detailing a final decision to be made in the middle of 2019. So here we are, the decision seems to have been made.

The problem isn't hardware, as likely around 99% of people nowadays have a 64bit capable computer. Going by our own statistics, from what 2,254 users told us only 4 are using a 32bit Linux distribution. The issue then, is mainly software and libraries needed to actually run 32bit applications. This is where it sounds like there's going to be plenty of teething issues, with a number of people not too happy about the decision.

Steam, for example, is one such application along with plenty of 32bit games that will likely never get updated, although Canonical did say they're "in discussions" with Valve about it. There's also GOG, Humble Store and itch.io which all provide a number of direct-download 32bit games, which do not supply the required 32bit libraries to run. It doesn't sound like they have been given any thought (at least they haven't been mentioned).

Another of the major problems being Wine, with a discussion now happening on their mailing list. The discussion doesn't seem to be too positive, with developer Henri Verbeet even saying "I think not building packages for Ubuntu 19.10 would be the only practical option.", although Andrew Eikum's idea of using the Steam Runtime could be an interesting way around it.

What are your thoughts?

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Distro News, Misc
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164 comments
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Alm888 Jun 21, 2019
Quoting: emphy
Quoting: Alm888...
Lots of native closed-source Linux games, like "Aquaria" (which developers went defunct)
...
Funny you mention Aquaria, one of the few exceptions that prove the rule, since it's been open sourced for years:

http://www.bit-blot.com/forum/index.php?topic=4313.0

^_^
It did? Wow! Didn't know that. Last thing I heard was the studio had effectively dissolved. It's been a while since I had returned to that game (it was one of the first purchased games after my switch to GNU/Linux).
thelimeydragon Jun 21, 2019
I'm just glad I use Slackware.
vlademir1 Jun 21, 2019
Switching from *Buntu to Antergos is a project I've had on the table for a few years anyway. Finding time to backup everything I need to (my Music directory alone took near three hours of disk copying time) and time to format my main partition and install has been my main bottleneck. This is just one more major reason to force myself to do it when I'd otherwise be relaxing playing a game.
Shmerl Jun 21, 2019
Quoting: no_information_hereEdit: Just checking and it looks like most of those work fine. Hmm. Does anyone have any comments on the KDE Debian spin?

I'm using KDE from Debian testing for a long time already. It works well, but rarely transitions of KDE frameworks libraries and Plasma have some mistakes, when packages don't migrate all at once, which can temporary break things. Maintainers try to avoid such cases, but it happened a few times in the past, that forced me to roll back to some previous snapshot until things started moving. In general, KDE in Debian can benefit from more developers and maintainers.


Last edited by Shmerl on 21 June 2019 at 7:29 am UTC
mahagr Jun 21, 2019
I think that forcing the maintained applications to use 64-bit code is great; I tried to run my system without 32-bit support for a while (years ago), but I was forced to install 32-bit libraries after Microsoft bought Skype and dropped 64-bit support. After that I did stop using it, but because of Steam I had to keep the 32-bit subsystem installed.

But fully dropping 32-bit support for good is a bad decision as not all software is open source and/or maintained. I love how you can run older Windows software in Linux -- software that does not work in Windows 10 anymore. This is one of the greatest benefits of Linux as you do not need to use WM to run older software if you happen to need to do that.

I don't care if the 32-bit libraries are inside the main system or in some sandbagged environment without needing to use VM to do that.
legluondunet Jun 21, 2019
Don't panic, I'm sure there will be soon a solution like a "steam runtime" package containing all old needed 32 bits libraries or another solution like "VM". I just hope it will be a simpler solution as installing 32 bits software is hell for a newbie that just want to play his old 32 bits game on Linux.


Last edited by legluondunet on 21 June 2019 at 7:35 am UTC
no_information_here Jun 21, 2019
Quoting: ShmerlI'm using KDE from Debian testing for a long time already. It works well, but rarely transitions of KDE frameworks libraries and Plasma have some mistakes, when packages don't migrate all at once, which can temporary break things. Maintainers try to avoid such cases, but it happened a few times in the past, that forced me to roll back to some previous snapshot until things started moving. In general, KDE in Debian can benefit from more developers and maintainers.
Thanks. I will watch the Buster release with interest. I am overdue for a distro update anyway...


Last edited by no_information_here on 21 June 2019 at 7:50 am UTC
Ehvis Jun 21, 2019
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Somehow it sounds like this announcement came late for something that is supposed to happen in 19.10. Could it be that they're just testing the waters?
Mal Jun 21, 2019
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Regarding new videogames (and any other general purpose software) there is literally no reason to have 32 bit releases today. On Steam there might be old 32 bit games but its Valve job to keep their runtime retro compatible and they will. While Steam client itself it's about time that it goes 64 bit. Not because it will benefit from the architecture but because of the additional hassle to install it.

Generally speaking though 32 bit OS still have their niche use and are needed. The decision to drop the architecture has a lot more implications outside gaming. But Ubuntu is not Debian, its desktop images are general purpose in their scope. I would say that dropping 32bit is a wise decision.

Ofc Canonical as a desktop OS provider doesn't have the "power" to force software developers hand. But given that most developers that deliver on linux also delivers on mac and Apple already did it for itself I expect this to go quite well for them.
omicron-b Jun 21, 2019
Quoting: EhvisSomehow it sounds like this announcement came late for something that is supposed to happen in 19.10. Could it be that they're just testing the waters?
non LTS releases are for testing and development, so in general 32bit support ends in 2021 and even then 18.04 will still get security updates till 2023. I don`t feel any decision could be too late for Ubuntu non LTS release.
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