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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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Beamboom Jun 23, 2019
Quoting: 1xokThe support of your 18.10 ends with the release of 19.10. The support of the 19.04 a few weeks later. I don't know if that puts you under pressure but it would annoy me. Precisely because nothing changes in Ubuntu.

You have to add some months but either way: Who cares. Noone should.
In a production environment? Sure, support is crucial. But as a desktop computer on a home network behind a firewall and especially if that partition is just used for gaming? Care. I mean, it's not optimal but my point here is that there's really no rush. No need for hasty decisions at all.

Put 19.10 on a second partition and see how it affects you, having a fully functional second partition to boot as an option. That's my advice (and has always been my advice regardless of this particular thing).


Last edited by Beamboom on 23 June 2019 at 3:17 pm UTC
dvd Jun 23, 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.....

I never got what's tricky about installing Debian? Apart from it's partitioner not crashing like Ubuntus did when i last tried to install it. If you use graphical install, it shouldn't be harder than installing windows, or ubuntu. As i recall, it even asks the same questions.
omicron-b Jun 23, 2019
Quoting: sub
Quoting: TemplateRI personally think, that Valve should create a Linux-Distribution, which is NOT based on Debian or Arch. It would be much better to have more controls, hat should remain and what not.

BUT Valve should also recreate a new desktop environment, which aims more for PC instead of Console.

And call it

Crowbar Linux

Or Free Man's Linux
dvd Jun 23, 2019
Quoting: TemplateRI personally think, that Valve should create a Linux-Distribution, which is NOT based on Debian or Arch. It would be much better to have more controls, hat should remain and what not.

BUT Valve should also recreate a new desktop environment, which aims more for PC instead of Console.

That's a terrible idea. Valve only wants to control the graphics drivers and at most a handful of packages that make the steam client and games work. The bare minimum, so what they did with Steamos. Of course, they need to control package versions if they want to sell it as part of their own control package, that's why they made Steamos at all in my opinion.


Last edited by dvd on 23 June 2019 at 3:22 pm UTC
Tuxee Jun 23, 2019
Quoting: BeamboomI'll not be surprised if Canonical backs out of this decision again, seeing the reception.

Already happened:

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2019/06/is-ubuntu-not-dropping-32-bit-app-support-after-all

QuoteI’m sorry that we’ve given anyone the impression that we are ‘dropping support for i386 applications‘. It is simply not the case. What we are dropping is updates to the i386 libraries, which will be frozen at the 18.04 LTS versions.
ageres Jun 23, 2019
Quoting: bird_or_cage
Quoting: sub
Quoting: TemplateRI personally think, that Valve should create a Linux-Distribution, which is NOT based on Debian or Arch. It would be much better to have more controls, hat should remain and what not.

BUT Valve should also recreate a new desktop environment, which aims more for PC instead of Console.

And call it

Crowbar Linux

Or Free Man's Linux
Linux 2 Ep 1
Redface Jun 23, 2019
Quoting: Tuxee
Quoting: BeamboomI'll not be surprised if Canonical backs out of this decision again, seeing the reception.

Already happened:

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2019/06/is-ubuntu-not-dropping-32-bit-app-support-after-all

QuoteI’m sorry that we’ve given anyone the impression that we are ‘dropping support for i386 applications‘. It is simply not the case. What we are dropping is updates to the i386 libraries, which will be frozen at the 18.04 LTS versions.
Quoting: Tuxee
Quoting: BeamboomI'll not be surprised if Canonical backs out of this decision again, seeing the reception.

Already happened:

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2019/06/is-ubuntu-not-dropping-32-bit-app-support-after-all

QuoteI’m sorry that we’ve given anyone the impression that we are ‘dropping support for i386 applications‘. It is simply not the case. What we are dropping is updates to the i386 libraries, which will be frozen at the 18.04 LTS versions.
That is not backing out, it is a clarification of their plans. They never said that 32 bit programs would not be able tun run any more. A lot of us are worried that the new ways will be Inferior to what we have today, especially in regard to how complicated it will be for users. And I still are.

A lot of online publication and posters claimed that it would be impossible, but this is Linux not Mac or Windows so there will always be ways for users to do what they want differently than their distribution providers. Do not believe everything you read.

But distributions are about convenience, after all we could all do a Linux from scratch installation and not use any distribution after all. So if they make it a lot harder for users we should go elsewhere.
Mohandevir Jun 23, 2019
Quoting: Redface
Quoting: Tuxee
Quoting: BeamboomI'll not be surprised if Canonical backs out of this decision again, seeing the reception.

Already happened:

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2019/06/is-ubuntu-not-dropping-32-bit-app-support-after-all

QuoteI’m sorry that we’ve given anyone the impression that we are ‘dropping support for i386 applications‘. It is simply not the case. What we are dropping is updates to the i386 libraries, which will be frozen at the 18.04 LTS versions.
Quoting: Tuxee
Quoting: BeamboomI'll not be surprised if Canonical backs out of this decision again, seeing the reception.

Already happened:

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2019/06/is-ubuntu-not-dropping-32-bit-app-support-after-all

QuoteI’m sorry that we’ve given anyone the impression that we are ‘dropping support for i386 applications‘. It is simply not the case. What we are dropping is updates to the i386 libraries, which will be frozen at the 18.04 LTS versions.
That is not backing out, it is a clarification of their plans. They never said that 32 bit programs would not be able tun run any more. A lot of us are worried that the new ways will be Inferior to what we have today, especially in regard to how complicated it will be for users. And I still are.

A lot of online publication and posters claimed that it would be impossible, but this is Linux not Mac or Windows so there will always be ways for users to do what they want differently than their distribution providers. Do not believe everything you read.

But distributions are about convenience, after all we could all do a Linux from scratch installation and not use any distribution after all. So if they make it a lot harder for users we should go elsewhere.

Still, it means that Canonical won't maintain it anymore... If they don't someone will have to. It will then become external to Ubuntu and will have to be added like an optional ppa (my understanding). Just another hurdle to new Linux users that want a plug&play experience.

Am I wrong?


Last edited by Mohandevir on 23 June 2019 at 4:23 pm UTC
Nevertheless Jun 23, 2019
Quoting: deathxxxIf Valve move to FreeBSD, that will be great! Because BSD is more faster than Linux. Only AMD cards will have no binary drivers, so will force to use Mesa. For Nvidia is OK. PlayStation uses BSD already and we saw how it run.

Oh yes of course! Valve scraps everything they did for Linux (and community) and goes for BSD, turning to the vivid BSD gaming community for support, hoping for engine vendors, hardware vendors, middleware vendors, game developers to support their brand of BSD .. or doing it all themselves, because Canonical stops delivering Linux 32bit libs? I don't think so.
sub Jun 23, 2019
Quoting: Nevertheless
Quoting: deathxxxIf Valve move to FreeBSD, that will be great! Because BSD is more faster than Linux. Only AMD cards will have no binary drivers, so will force to use Mesa. For Nvidia is OK. PlayStation uses BSD already and we saw how it run.

Oh yes of course! Valve scraps everything they did for Linux (and community) and goes for BSD, turning to the vivid BSD gaming community for support, hoping for engine vendors, hardware vendors, middleware vendors, game developers to support their brand of BSD .. or doing it all themselves, because Canonical stops delivering Linux 32bit libs? I don't think so.

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