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.
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The comments on this article are closed.
My bet is on Manjaro. If you don't touch it much after install, it's newbie friendly enough, and it's in top3 on ProtonDB (2nd? 3rd? don't remember).
See, there's no reliable distro in Windows world either but does anybody care...? ¯\_ツ_/¯
Last edited by cprn on 22 June 2019 at 8:29 am UTC
Quoting: einherjar"See, there is no reliable Distro in the Linux world. It doesn't make sense to ship software for Linux"
See, there's no reliable distro in Windows world either but does anybody care...? ¯\_ツ_/¯
Last edited by cprn on 22 June 2019 at 8:29 am UTC
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Quoting: ixnariWhat a mess this is turning out to be. First we had Wine devs considering dropping support and now Valve. At least in terms of Linux gaming, Steam and Wine are one of the more important and widely use programs. Not having support for them would be a huge blow to Canonical. Here's hoping they extract their head out of their ass soon and reconsider this move. Though, being so close to feature freeze for Ubuntu's next release, I'm not holding my breath.
Perhaps the partnership with MS is better for there financial situation, then supporting non-paying users?
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Uh, i did not realize ubuntu wants to drop multilib - from the headlines i thought they would only scrap the 32bit installer :O
But i highly doubt the alternative will be Debian, much to conservative with new versions. And packing a PPA with recent Kernels and Mesa for Debian seems kind of the wrong way.
Given they are working on KWin, maybe OpenSUSE? Manjaro might also be a good call...
Anyway, switching away from gnome is a good thing imho xD
But i highly doubt the alternative will be Debian, much to conservative with new versions. And packing a PPA with recent Kernels and Mesa for Debian seems kind of the wrong way.
Given they are working on KWin, maybe OpenSUSE? Manjaro might also be a good call...
Anyway, switching away from gnome is a good thing imho xD
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Too bad, really. I doubt Canonical will stick with their decision, since Valve not moving away from 32bit pretty much guarantees most gamers won't use newer Ubuntus any more.
Seems like we will have to drag along the 32bit legacy even longer. *sigh*
Last edited by TheSHEEEP on 22 June 2019 at 9:01 am UTC
Seems like we will have to drag along the 32bit legacy even longer. *sigh*
Last edited by TheSHEEEP on 22 June 2019 at 9:01 am UTC
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doomiebaby Jun 22, 2019
Quoting: ryadCanonical should rename their distro in TrumpOS or something..
no no, something political and inflammatory! /s
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Quoting: TheSHEEEPToo bad, really. I doubt Canonical will stick with their decision, since Valve not moving away from 32bit pretty much guarantees most gamers won't use newer Ubuntus any more.
Seems like we will have to drag along the 32bit legacy even longer. *sigh*
I don't understand that comment , really.
You're implying that is a bad decision but then also saying 32 bit legacy will stick on even longer.
When i look at your profile , it says you're dualbooting with Windows. So you also want MS to kill 32 bit support which will end miserably like Ubuntu's proposal, same games are also 32 bit on that side? Or just asking it on Linux side? Don't you have any 32 bit games?
Killing 32 bit compat is not something MS will do like Canonical does ; without a solution at all.
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openSUSE dropping their hat in the ring: https://twitter.com/sysrich/status/1142351783358058498
I was hoping to see some distro's reach out, it's time to really show who has a desktop focus.
I was hoping to see some distro's reach out, it's time to really show who has a desktop focus.
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I think Canonical might backtrack on this decision, but if not, then Debian testing makes a lot of sense. It is the distribution that Ubuntu (and SteamOS) is based on after all, and after initial setup and a bit of configuration, it's pretty much the same as Ubuntu under the hood.
Some of you rightly pointed out that Debian is not as newbie-friendly. I agree, but what if SteamOS was touted as the newbie-friendly distribution instead?
Others rightly pointed out that Debian is too conservative. Correct in regards to the stable version, hence why Debian testing should be promoted instead. It is no more unstable than Ubuntu. Quite the opposite in my experience. It also gets regular updates of important packages for gaming such as kernel and mesa so there's no need for ppa's and such like there is on Ubuntu.
Debian aims to support a whole bunch of architectures which makes me think that multi-lib is going to be supported for many years to come. There's been no indication of them dropping it unlike many other distributions.
Edit: Or perhaps make a desktop flavour of SteamOS?
Last edited by Brisse on 22 June 2019 at 9:35 am UTC
Some of you rightly pointed out that Debian is not as newbie-friendly. I agree, but what if SteamOS was touted as the newbie-friendly distribution instead?
Others rightly pointed out that Debian is too conservative. Correct in regards to the stable version, hence why Debian testing should be promoted instead. It is no more unstable than Ubuntu. Quite the opposite in my experience. It also gets regular updates of important packages for gaming such as kernel and mesa so there's no need for ppa's and such like there is on Ubuntu.
Debian aims to support a whole bunch of architectures which makes me think that multi-lib is going to be supported for many years to come. There's been no indication of them dropping it unlike many other distributions.
Edit: Or perhaps make a desktop flavour of SteamOS?
Last edited by Brisse on 22 June 2019 at 9:35 am UTC
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I 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
Even if the Ubuntu engineering team did an about-face, and even if Plagman's aforementioned tweet is to be considered as wholly unofficial, I think Valve is still likely to proceed with dropping official support for Ubuntu, given the way this has been handled in Ubuntu.
I wish Arch Linux, Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, openSUSE, and Ubuntu could all be officially supported in some fashion (I realize this short list of six leaves out the perennial Slackware, as well as many favorites like Clear Linux, Mageia, OpenMandriva, Solus, Void Linux, etc, but I still think it is a reasonable short list), but Valve isn't going to support that many distributions. Given that, my preference would be the current level of official support, i.e. SteamOS (primarily targeting dedicated gaming computers), plus one recommended Linux distribution (for multipurpose computers), unless Valve is going to invest in expanding the SteamOS desktop experience.
I would understand if Valve decided to only support SteamOS, although, as mentioned, I would prefer they also support (at least) one other distribution. The easy choice would be Debian, given Valve's experience with it, but I hope Valve staff won't rush to a decision. It sounds like Plagman, for one, isn't wholly content with any Linux distributions as desktop OSes (https://twitter.com/Plagman2/status/1142245249521078272, but this may be a situation of choosing the least bad option, one that hopefully shows signs of making the kind of improvements Valve values, and I hope those inside Valve who will be making the call will give the matter their full consideration. If they choose Debian, I hope it is because organizationally, the Debian Project is perceived as being the best potential partner (i.e. because there are productive communication channels and because Valve's needs are taken into consideration), and because release cadence-wise and support lifecyle-wise Debian is the best fit for Valve, and not because Debian was the path of least resistance in the short term.
I believe this change could be as much of an opportunity for Valve as it is a headache.
Last edited by vector on 22 June 2019 at 9:26 am UTC
Even if the Ubuntu engineering team did an about-face, and even if Plagman's aforementioned tweet is to be considered as wholly unofficial, I think Valve is still likely to proceed with dropping official support for Ubuntu, given the way this has been handled in Ubuntu.
I wish Arch Linux, Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, openSUSE, and Ubuntu could all be officially supported in some fashion (I realize this short list of six leaves out the perennial Slackware, as well as many favorites like Clear Linux, Mageia, OpenMandriva, Solus, Void Linux, etc, but I still think it is a reasonable short list), but Valve isn't going to support that many distributions. Given that, my preference would be the current level of official support, i.e. SteamOS (primarily targeting dedicated gaming computers), plus one recommended Linux distribution (for multipurpose computers), unless Valve is going to invest in expanding the SteamOS desktop experience.
I would understand if Valve decided to only support SteamOS, although, as mentioned, I would prefer they also support (at least) one other distribution. The easy choice would be Debian, given Valve's experience with it, but I hope Valve staff won't rush to a decision. It sounds like Plagman, for one, isn't wholly content with any Linux distributions as desktop OSes (https://twitter.com/Plagman2/status/1142245249521078272, but this may be a situation of choosing the least bad option, one that hopefully shows signs of making the kind of improvements Valve values, and I hope those inside Valve who will be making the call will give the matter their full consideration. If they choose Debian, I hope it is because organizationally, the Debian Project is perceived as being the best potential partner (i.e. because there are productive communication channels and because Valve's needs are taken into consideration), and because release cadence-wise and support lifecyle-wise Debian is the best fit for Valve, and not because Debian was the path of least resistance in the short term.
I believe this change could be as much of an opportunity for Valve as it is a headache.
Last edited by vector on 22 June 2019 at 9:26 am UTC
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