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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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Mohandevir Jun 22, 2019
Quoting: gojulLooks like Valve may not use a Debian-based distro : https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/155794864305471497/591834042437992448/Screenshot_20190622_053640.png

If true, this might explain why SteamOS Clockwork is not yet a thing; Valve was probably already exploring the possibility of dropping debian as a base.

It's not a great news for newcomers, but personnally I find it exciting... New stuff to come! It could be one step backwards for a new start for Linux gaming.

This said, Pop!OS is probably going to be my choice, since they plan to keep supporting 32bit libs.
Satoru 6 years Jun 22, 2019
Quoting: GuestHmm, Ubuntu HAS to backpedal, this would hurt the whole Linux ecosystem. For most people Linux = Ubuntu.

This is highly unlikely given that they really really dont care about their own product
Satoru 6 years Jun 22, 2019
Quoting: vectorI say this tongue-in-cheek so don't flame me, but perhaps Ubuntu would like to deprecate support for OpenGL as well; after all, Apple is deprecating OpenGL support :P

At least Apple

1) CLEARLY communicated that 32-bit and OpenGL was deprecated YEARS in advance
2) Did not hem and haw about 'well maybe we'll get rid of it in 20.04'
3) CLEARLY made an OS update that bugged users about their apps potentially not working in future releases
4) Only after 2-3 years of such updates, notification, etc is 32-bit support finally ending with OSX Catalina
5) OpenGL was declared deprecated last year, it still is not offically dead even in Catalina. yes its likely soon, but Apple has been screaming about converting to Metal for years. to the point where Aspyr and Feral back ported their entire steam library to Metal last year

Canonical's plan

1) "You have 4 months sorry!"

If Canonical is going to copy all of Apple's bad decisions, then they should also copy the part where Apple spent YEARS clearly communicating to both devs and users, with popups and warning. As opposed to dropping a bomb on people with 4 months notice, and then when users upgrade to 19.10 in 4 months suddenly 50% of the Linux games will stop working and Proton/Wine also dies with it.
Satoru 6 years Jun 22, 2019
Quoting: GustyGhostThe problem is not 100% Canonical's decision. Consider also Valve's failure to build Steam for amd64, and the games industry (in general).

You do realize how ignorant this is right?

1) Steam already has 64-bit installers for steam. the osx version of steam is already 64-bit.
2) Steam sells and distributes GAMES. Games that, well what do you know, may not have 64-bit executable. Because you know some games were made years ago? when it wasn't a big deal to make a 32bit exe
3) Steam also supports wine/proton to get more windows games into linux. wine needs 32-bit libraries because again, many windows games are 32-bit
scaine Jun 22, 2019
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Quoting: Satoru
Quoting: vectorI say this tongue-in-cheek so don't flame me, but perhaps Ubuntu would like to deprecate support for OpenGL as well; after all, Apple is deprecating OpenGL support :P
Canonical's plan

1) "You have 4 months sorry!"

If Canonical is going to copy all of Apple's bad decisions, then they should also copy the part where Apple spent YEARS clearly communicating to both devs and users, with popups and warning. As opposed to dropping a bomb on people with 4 months notice, and then when users upgrade to 19.10 in 4 months suddenly 50% of the Linux games will stop working and Proton/Wine also dies with it.

For the third(?) time: Canonical have been talking about this for about 2 years. Can't say that I'm amazingly pleased about how it's been communicated, but at least lets get the facts straight, eh?
poisond Jun 22, 2019
Quoting: GustyGhostThe problem is not 100% Canonical's decision. Consider also Valve's failure to build Steam for amd64, and the games industry (in general).

Yes, it is.
Even if Valve will finally ship the 64bit client they'll still have to include the 32bit steam APIs and runtime, because old games exist and they won't be ported to 64 bit.
Porting 10+ year old games to 64bit just isn't going to happen.
iiari Jun 22, 2019
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Quoting: scaineFor the third(?) time: Canonical have been talking about this for about 2 years. Can't say that I'm amazingly pleased about how it's been communicated, but at least lets get the facts straight, eh?
Yes, true, but it reminds me of Gnome's decision to eliminate the desktop OS icon tray. Just because they think it's a great idea, and just because they've been communicating it was coming for a long time, doesn't mean the entirety of the rest of the ecosystem can or will bend to that decision. Even if it's something they were long considering doesn't mean they had to do it.


Last edited by iiari on 22 June 2019 at 3:23 pm UTC
Scoopta Jun 22, 2019
I was really hoping canonical was going to give me the 64-bit steam client of my dreams. I don't play any 32-bit games so steam is the only reason I even need it enabled on my distro. I'm personally disappointed, 32-bit needs to go. It's annoying having to have 2 separate versions of every library so I can run 32-bit software. I'm also a bigger fan of GTK/Gnome so I'm a bit disappointed they chose kwin to contribute to instead of something like mutter but oh well. It's nice to see them continuing to better the Linux space even if it's a project I'll never use.


Last edited by Scoopta on 22 June 2019 at 3:36 pm UTC
slaapliedje Jun 22, 2019
Quoting: gojul
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.
I will personally help anyone who wants help switching to Debian. I've been using it for close to two decades.

Redhat/CentOS is iffy for Desktop use, outside if you're using it as a workstation. Fedora (in my experience) isn't stable enough, with a constant change in their package versions even within their own release.

Debian is great because they do a very stable release every year or so, only release when they're damn sure it's ready. And upgrades from one release to the next are very smooth. And with Backports, and steam already being packaged for it, it's a complete win!
Eike Jun 22, 2019
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Quoting: ScooptaI don't play any 32-bit games so steam is the only reason I even need it enabled on my distro.

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