Quoting: elmapul

Quoting: legluondunetDon'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.

wich reminds me that steam runtime is proprietary...

Quoting: elmapul

Quoting: legluondunetDon'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.

wich reminds me that steam runtime is proprietary...

No, it consists of open source libraries, and the scripts for the runtime itself is also very permissive: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-runtime/blob/master/COPYING [External Link]

It is possible for GOG and others to bundle those as well.

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Quoting: Prime_EvilI am not without sympathy for Canonical's decision, since providing support for any processor architecture involves a non-trivial amount of effort. But how much of the work required for multiarch support is performed by Canonical and how much comes from upstream Debian maintainers? Why can't we treat the provision of a 32-bit compatibility layer just like the support of any other compatibility layer (e.g. Wine)?

The argument that developers should offer games as Snaps or bundle all 32-bit dependencies with the executable isn't going to fly in the real world. For one thing, game engines can have hidden 32-bit dependencies that are not obvious to developers. And very few game developers will be willing to update their entire back catalogue just to make things work on Ubuntu. Plus it is unlikely that developers will choose to distribute their work as Snaps as this package format is not yet widely accepted as the default.

Meanwhile, the suggestion that Ubuntu should freeze the 32-bit libraries at their current versions is irresponsible. It means that security bugs in these libraries will never get patched, even if the upstream maintainers release patches.

I am heartened by the fact that a number of Ubuntu derivatives such as Mint and Pop_OS! have indicated that they will continue to offer 32-bit support in some form. Has anybody heard from Elementary or KDE Neon yet?

I feel that this decision will do immense harm to the Ubuntu brand in the community. While it has been under the discussion for some time, the announcement of a final decision only three months out from the release 19.10 is a public relations disaster. This is the kind of decision that requires a communication plan and long lead times. It breaks a large amount of software, including hardware drivers only offered in 32-bit builds. It's easy to point out that hardware manufacturers should be offering 64-bit driver build, but the truth is that many companies only grudgingly support Linux in the first place. And in the gaming area, it is unlikely that publishing houses will change their release strategies just to accomodate this move.

It might be time to look at putting Manjaro on my main desktop computer if none of the Ubuntu derivatives can implement a workaround...

I agree with most you said, but the 32bit packages from 18.04 will still get security fixes as long as 18.04 is supported.

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Quoting: 1xok

Quoting: BeamboomI'll not be surprised if Canonical backs out of this decision again, seeing the reception.

But either way, no one's forcing you to upgrade to 19.10. The practical difference between the versions are only smaller and smaller for each year.
I used to always upgrade back in the days for great benefits, but now I don't even care if I use 18.04 (@work) or 18.10 (@home), I've not even bothered upgrading to 19.04.

So there's really no reason for rushed decisions no matter what.

The 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.

No, the normal release have 9 months of support after release, so 18.10 is supported until July 2019, so 3 months before 19.10 releases, and 19.04 will have support for 3 months after 19.10 releases until January 2020.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases [External Link]

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Quoting: Shmerl

What we are dropping is updates to the i386 libraries, which will be frozen at the 18.04 LTS versions.

That's not a good thing either. Given how fast mesa, dxvk and the rest are progressing. It totally should not be frozen.

That was partly/shortly adressed too: https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/i386-architecture-will-be-dropped-starting-with-eoan-ubuntu-19-10/11263/88 [External Link]

32-bit mesa will be available in the Ubuntu 18.04 repository. Note that mesa already gets updates in 18.04 which track the versions from later Ubuntu releases, as part of hardware enablement. If incompatibilities are introduced beyond 20.04 (which is the cutoff for hardware enablement backports for 18.04), we will need to address them on a case-by-case basis.

and later

We can and should make the 32-bit nvidia drivers available as part of the amd64 packages. These would then be exposed into the 32-bit containers, ensuring that the 32-bit userspace libraries matched the version of the kernel driver, regardless of what other library versions were available as packages within the container.

I see a problem with that the HWE always is some months behind of the regular releases they come from, so someone upgrading to 19.10 when its released with not have the kernel, mesa and xorg from 19.10 available in the 18.04 container right away, unless one uses the same PPA for both.

And why not doing the same with the AMD drivers they plan to do with nvidia, shipping the 32bit along with the 64bit drivers and libraries?

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Please read what Samsai wrote in the forum thread about this a day ago: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/forum/topic/3938/post_id=23713

The ability to run 32 bit programs will not go away, what will go away if this goes through is that the whole distribution (probably with some exceptions) is compiled to 32bit all the time.

This was the normal way to get 32 bit packages until now because it was convenient to use that since the 32bit distribution was there anyway. Now that there is no need for installing Ubuntu on 32bit processors, which most agree with, it is possible to look into other ways to provide those 32 bit libraries.

See the discussion at https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/i386-architecture-will-be-dropped-starting-with-eoan-ubuntu-19-10/11263 [External Link] where there are some proposals at the start but also more discussion.

What remains to be seen, and we should be sceptical there, is how that will turn out, and if it at the end will

* be a lot more complicated for users,
* buggy,
* same experience for users as today
* or even better as now.

I am using Ubuntu 19.04 now on my home desktop and home laptop where I game on some times (while my main gamerig is on SteamOS ) I will switch to another distribution if 19.10 will not be as least as good as 19.04 to game on.
19.04 is supported until January so that leaves some time, those on 18.04 have even more time before they have to find another if 19.10 and onwards turns out unacceptable.

I will install a 19.10 on a virtual machine for easy snapshotting and another install on dedicated partition for testing of how games will perform, and how easy or complicated and possibly buggy it will be too install them.

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Quoting: gojul

Quoting: ShmerlDidn't Valve select Debian for SteamOS? So Valve would simply swap Ubuntu with Debian as most recommended target. Quite natural to expect that.

They did this because Canonical has a shitty license policy.

Maybe but I think its more about not having another company control of the distribution they choose to base on where there also is a lot of branding, and maybe some software with problematic licenses involved, that would take a lot of effort to fork out of if a situation arise where they do not like the direction the distribution will take. A situation like this, not saying that Valve will not like how this will turn out. They might change SteamOS to use the same way to get the needed 32bit libraries as Ubuntu will get after all.

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Stellaris is also on https://www.gog.com/connect [External Link] now for those that have the Steam version and want it on GOG too. Apparently without DLC, but I have not yet tried to install the GOG version and then logon with my Paradox account, possible the DLC you own will be available too then.

And I will get that new DLC, I played Stellaris since the beginning and really like how they improved and expanded the game over the years.

Edit: Link to the reddit thread where I saw it, https://old.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/bwrf0q/psa_stellaris_now_on_gog_connect/ [External Link] and it seems to be gone already.

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I do have a massive backlog too, including a lot of Feral titles.
Most of the Feral titles I got I did play enough to make it a lot cheaper than renting a movie per hour for the hours I played, and those that are almost unplayed are sequels where I still haven't finished the previous but did enjoy it enough to buy the next at release to support Feral.

That said I am going to play 3 kingdoms tonight:-)

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Quoting: Guest

Quoting: g000hPersonally I have a massive backlog of RTS games (including previous Feral titles) which I haven't even touched yet, and it isn't a genre that really grabs me. I'm holding off making a purchase for now.

Same for me (different genre).

...that makes me think: too much games for not so many (Linux) users?
Is the Linux game market inflated?

To many games for each individual Linux User yes, but there are around 1 million Linux Steam users so as long as a game is good for some users and does get to their attention they might get some sales. Getting peoples attention on steam with all those games is a huge problem for smaller developers. Those that know that they can go to GOL and r/linux_gaming and the different sites in other languages than English probably have a better chance to get some Linux sales.

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I was waiting for the Linux version to get out of beta and got it now, I hope I will like it, and also take time to play it:-)

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