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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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x_wing Jun 21, 2019
Quoting: Purple Library Guy2) It will be easy for Ubuntu derivatives to just put the 32-bit libraries back.

But maybe it is a big deal. Maybe there's some huge amount of work involved in maintaining this stuff--or rather, in using the stuff Debian is already maintaining . . .
Could someone enlighten me on this?

It won't be easy, definitely. Having to build by yourself all 32 bit deps will take time, not to mention that you have to keep track of the current version of your 64 bit counter part, as you can get into some troubles if your 32 bit versions gets newer/older mayor versions (this is in case you don't go for the snap "solution"). Without the QA variable, I can say that in this scenario it will be better that you just keep updated 32 & 64 bit as in the end will be the same work load.

By the way, I'm not sure how Andrew Eikum's solution will work in order to fix Mesa/Nvidia 32 bits deps. From my point of view, that is something that will probably be impossible to handle (mainly with Nvidia).
Mohandevir Jun 21, 2019
Quoting: Tuxee
Quoting: Shmerl
Quoting: sprocketNot really. Debian Stable and Ubuntu LTS have had roughly the same release cadence of 2 years. In fact Debian 10 is only a few weeks away.

LTS may be, but not regular Ubuntu which is more commonly used among desktop users. Ubuntu LTS is really more of a server distro, same as Debian stable.

No it is not. On all my desktops I run Ubuntu LTS. With HWE you are not missing out a lot and I wouldn't want to update my desktops every 6 months.

Just to be on the same page (bold on me):

"Furthermore, we define the LTS to be:

Enterprise Focused: We are targeting server and multiple desktop installations, where the average user is moderately risk averse.

Compatible with New Hardware: We will make point releases throughout the development cycle to provide functional support for new server and desktop hardware.

More Tested: We will shorten the development window and extend the Beta cycle to allow for more testing and bug fixing

and clearly state that it is not:

A Feature-Based Release: We will focus on hardening functionality of existing features, versus introducing new ones1, except for in the areas of Online Services and Desktop Experience2.

1. Exceptions for priority projects will be documented.
2. Because these two areas of development are relatively new, they still require new features to satisfy the original reasons for their creation

Cutting Edge: Starting with the 14.04 LTS development cycle, automatic full package import is performed from Debian unstable1

1. This is due to deploying ProposedMigration in the Ubuntu archive."

Source:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LTS
Tuxee Jun 21, 2019
Quoting: NanobangThank you for your condolences. You make a good point about a limitation of snaps. For me, another one is that almost every snap I ever tried was unable to access my data partition---where I keep all my music, videos, pix, and games.

Only your data partition? Or anything beyond the snap sandbox? Because that happens to non-"classic" installs.

https://blog.ubuntu.com/2017/01/09/how-to-snap-introducing-classic-confinement
finaldest Jun 21, 2019
What I am worried about primarily with this fiasco is new Linux users.

For now I am going to recommend Manjaro (rolling) and LMDE (LTS)

I think VALVE should create a desktop distro based on ARCH for a rolling release and/or one based on DEBIAN (LTS) to run alongside SteamOS

Just as Linux was reaching a tipping point we have had numerous hits to the face starting with EPIC games and its been downhill from there. I am beginning to think that Microsoft is involved here. Isn't it coincidental that as soon as Steamplay/Proton hits the ground running Canonical decide to drop 32bit breaking 80+% of software on Linux and also work with Microsoft to create WSL allowing Linux programs to run under Windows.

This not only cripples VALVE but Wine and Proton also.


Thoughts?
Projectile Vomit Jun 21, 2019
Haven't used Ubuntu since they started using Unity as their desktop environment. Thought about going back to Kubuntu, and I might still, one day. But I do use Wine for some 32 bit games.

Ubuntu, though... So many cool distros out there. I no longer see Ubuntu any different than Apple or Microsoft, anymore.
Natedawg Jun 21, 2019
They're probably following suit after macOS Catalina which is also due to drop 32 bit support. I'm not sure what to think of this except that 32bit needs to be deprecated at some point and the longer it's kept around the possibly more painful it will be when it is dropped. I'll probably just stay on the LTS (I'm on Pop, but assuming 32bit will be gone as well) until either a solution is figured out for 32bit games, or until 22.04 comes out.

https://appletoolbox.com/2019/06/macos-catalina-and-your-32-bit-apps
Tuxee Jun 21, 2019
Quoting: finaldest...Canonical decide to drop 32bit breaking 80+% of software on Linux...
Thoughts?

Thoughts? That you are slightly exaggerating? Apart from my (Steam-)games all my applications are 64bit anyway and my 4 Wine applications seem to work perfectly ok with wine64. If you count every game in my Steam library the percentage goes up considerably, but I suppose Steam might be just fine - after all Valve has shipped their own runtime environment for ages.
gojul Jun 21, 2019
Glad to have dropped Ubuntu several years ago for Debian. At the time I was worried about the future of Kubuntu.
wvstolzing Jun 21, 2019
Quoting: GuestI personally do not think what does Apple is very relevant to Linux. And they have a long tradition of screwing their customers and trade partners.

I agree with this -- in the past few years Apple has perfected gratuitous obsolescence to an art form. About Canonical, though, the following comes to mind. It smacks of a conspiracy theory of course, but Canonical screwing over desktop users like this could well be the prelude to their acquisition by M$.


Last edited by wvstolzing on 21 June 2019 at 2:24 pm UTC
Ehvis Jun 21, 2019
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Quoting: Tuxee... and my 4 Wine applications seem to work perfectly ok with wine64.

That doesn't mean they aren't 32 bit and use 32 bit libraries.
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