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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.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Steam, Valve
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246 comments
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Miles Jun 22, 2019
YYYyyyah.... 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.
Liam Dawe Jun 22, 2019
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.
doomiebaby Jun 22, 2019
at first i thought that debian would surely be what they settle on, as i thought that's what steam os was based directly on; but indeed a recommendation ought to be something noob-friendly, and they know that. on that note, i also do wonder what will become of distros like pop and mint. i know mint has their "just in case" debian-based experiment... maybe this is that case? what a shakeup Owo

what one 'humbug' in the discussion at phoronix shared

fascinating...
Koopacabras Jun 22, 2019
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.
gojul Jun 22, 2019
Another thing to know there :
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
lectrode Jun 22, 2019
Quoting: doomiebabywhat one 'humbug' in the discussion at phoronix shared

fascinating...

Indeed. If they decided not to go with anything Debian-based, that would be very interesting. Wonder what distro "tooling" currently sparks their fancy...
gojul Jun 22, 2019
Quoting: Thormack
Quoting: 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.
D34VA_ Jun 22, 2019
Things are moving fast and heavy, these days. Paradigm shift, much?
slapin Jun 22, 2019
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I don't think it is last time when people stupidity affect Linux community putting people down. Desktop is damaged enough by X11 vs Wayland shit and with this I guess Linux market share will get to 0 finally and the remaining companies making games for Linux can finally pack and go home.
Coolit Jun 22, 2019
I can understand Canonical wanting to push forward technology wise however this just seems like a decision taken based on the server side of their business with little regard for the home user and backward compatibility.

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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