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.
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Addressing 14's comment (just prior to this) about using a (Debian) system: Debian is designed in such a way that you can have very 'stable' reliable software, which is carefully maintained, but the repositories aren't as cutting edge. Then there is the 'testing' distribution which is still very reliable and it has repositories with more recent software, and you can *easily* distro upgrade between the 'stable' release and the next one up the tree 'testing'. Then the next is 'unstable' and the top one is 'experimental'.
For the purposes of sticking with the one system, you can do that with Debian, and you can distro-upgrade whenever you're ready to do so. When you distro-upgrade it generally goes without any hitches, i.e. you shouldn't run into problems and need to rebuild your system.
On top of all that, more advanced users can "mess around" by using backports or even installing software from more unstable versions. I actually run Debian 10 Buster (currently 'testing' but due to become the 'stable' version in a few weeks time) with the latest experimental Nvidia drivers (by messing around with the apt package management config).
If I want to upgrade the Debian 10 Buster to the next 'testing' release, I just need to run distro-upgrade commands and it'll all happen without fuss. Chances are, I won't bother upgrading to the newer software in 'testing' for a number of months, and when I do I won't take any chances and will backup my partition before running the upgrade.
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Finishing off with this: If Ubuntu does push through this change, I think it is going to generally be bad for the whole Linux ecosystem i.e. It will not encourage new users to move to Linux, and it might cause existing users to move away.
Last edited by g000h on 21 June 2019 at 5:45 am UTC
Quote> Many 64-bit applications still use either a 32-bit installer or some
> 32-bit components. In comparison 64-bit Windows will support 32-bit
> (probably) forever.
Make that almost all applications. It's very unusual for a program to
have a 64-bit installer, because it won't be able to control what
happens when a user runs the installer on 32-bit Windows.
In practice, the only cases where 64-bit only wine will be useful are
when 64-bit applications are packaged some other way (such as a .zip,
Steam Play, or packaging specifically for Wine) or for running Wine
builtins like msidb.
So, almost all Windows apps won`t be able to install in 64-bit wine. Looks like Canonical kinda did not think about that when made the decision, but I don`t see them changing their mind now.
And yes, I am so glad Linux Mint Debian Edition exists, hope it will become the new gaming distro for newcomers.
1) They're dropping big functionality for small gain, which seems stupid, and
2) 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?
No more legacy 32bit WINE games (almost all of my WINE collection and 95% pre-2010 Windows™ games)?
Lots of native closed-source Linux games, like "Aquaria" (which developers went defunct) rendered unusable? Who will make Snaps for those?
Dropping 32bit support is foolish, IMO. My condolences to "*buntu" users. :(
Quoting: Alm888...
Lots of native closed-source Linux games, like "Aquaria" (which developers went defunct)
...
Funny you mention Aquaria, one of the few exceptions that prove the rule, since it's been open sourced for years:
http://www.bit-blot.com/forum/index.php?topic=4313.0
^_^
Last edited by emphy on 21 June 2019 at 6:44 am UTC
no_information_here Jun 21, 2019
Quoting: ShmerlBut LTS distros are really not as good for desktop use case. Their main target audience are servers. That's why many gamers use rolling or more frequently than LTS release distros.This is not true at all. I have been using only LTS versions since at least 2012. I got tired of trying to keep up. In fact I use the last LTS for up to a year past the new one, just to make sure all the bugs are squashed. With decent ppa support I have had no problems playing anything. Keeping up with non-LTS Ubuntu is often a fools game and only for developers or enthusiasts. I am too old for that, now.
Stability rules. I would happily switch to Debian if my PPAs for nvidia drivers, telegram, vivaldi, keepasXC, insync, and spideroak keep working?
Edit: Just checking and it looks like most of those work fine. Hmm. Does anyone have any comments on the KDE Debian spin?
Last edited by no_information_here on 21 June 2019 at 7:08 am UTC
StormBeast Jun 21, 2019
Quoting: emphyIt did? Wow! Didn't know that. Last thing I heard was the studio had effectively dissolved. It's been a while since I had returned to that game (it was one of the first purchased games after my switch to GNU/Linux).Quoting: Alm888...Funny you mention Aquaria, one of the few exceptions that prove the rule, since it's been open sourced for years:
Lots of native closed-source Linux games, like "Aquaria" (which developers went defunct)
...
http://www.bit-blot.com/forum/index.php?topic=4313.0
^_^
thelimeydragon Jun 21, 2019
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