Valve looking to drop support for Ubuntu 19.10 and up due to Canonical's 32bit decision (updated)

Well that was fast but not unexpected.:O

I think this will turn out to be a great opportunity moving forward as Valve are unlikely to make the same mistake again in relying on a single distro. Whatever distro they decide to choose will be going onto my Acer Predator (AMD) laptop but I do hope (personal bias) they decide to support a rolling disro as its easier to get the latest GFX drivers/Kernels.

I have also not seen any mention of Valves VR efforts and how canonicals short sightedness could affect this initiative in the short term.

I do hope that the whole community bands together with Valve and create something special that will benefit all of us.

Think positive.:)

Quoting: Coolit

Quoting: MicromegasInteresting twitter replies right now from OpenSUSE Chairman Richard Brown to Pierre-Loup Griffais from Valve, pitching a cooperation between Valve and OpenSUSE.

https://mobile.twitter.com/sysrich/status/1142363021605580801

This would be full circle for me as Suse was my first foray into Linux 20yrs ago :)

Mine too. I started with Suse Linux 6.0 when I remember right. Then I was very long on Suse and switched to Ubuntu about 2 yeas ago.
I did it, because most things (inluding Steam, Spotify, etc) just worked very well out of the box.
And here is the problem. openSUSE is not well known nor widely spread. And Canonical even pisses on the Manufacturers who brought Ubuntu on their machines (e.g. Dell).

So even if openSUSE would be a good choice, it is really sad and much harm to Linux is already done. It will last years, to get that ok again - if it will be ok again.

In the past lots of people gave Linux several chances. May it be according to Steam machines or other Linux hypes through computer magazines. But if you give something a try with more than one failure, it is done for you.

The people at MS surely laugh so much, that they are rolling on the floors of their offices.

Quoting: TermyBut 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.

Debian already does, it's called backports repository.

I can't compare to other distributions, but IMHO having Debian stable with new-enough drivers ain't hard.


Last edited by Eike on 22 June 2019 at 11:17 am UTC

I asked Clem what would happen to Linux Mint - would they drop multiarch support in Mint 19.3 or would they keep it until Mint 20 because the distro's base is built on the 18.04 LTS. Here's his reply in full:

QuoteIt’s a very good question but it’s a little bit soon for us to answer. It definitely means there won’t be a 32-bit version of Mint 20, but we’ll do everything we can to ship functional versions of Steam, Wine and popular 32-bit libs and applications. I can’t answer this without first knowing whether Ubuntu will address these issues, but I can confirm these are important to us and we’ll make sure they’re not overlooked.

Quoting: Leopard

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.

I simply look beyond a few personal inconveniences at the bigger picture.
And the bigger picture is that progress requires sacrifice. Can't play some games/use some apps anymore? So be it, if that's the price to pay to finally get rid of old stuff like 32bit for good.
Of course, if I couldn't play pretty much any games any more due to Steam not working, well, that would be more than just an inconvenience, it would make linux as a whole not viable to me.

Therefore, Canonical deciding to move forward becomes rather pointless if other important developers don't follow. And Valve announced that they won't, as did some others, so there we go...
I think this would require a concentrated effort, and that's just not something the Linux space is easily capable of. The Sum Of All Egos....

Alan Pope did some testing, and it does not look good. I guess Canonical will reconsider this decision.

Time to make a Valve Linux and focus purely on desktop/gaming experience. I would even pay for it if everything works well. I have a lot of sound issues in Ubuntu however I have a high end soundcard on my MoBo, I have to use my mobile to avoid killing my friends eardrums.

Quoting: VardamirAlan Pope did some testing, and it does not look good. I guess Canonical will reconsider this decision.

From the original discussion in May 2018:

QuoteRebootstrapping an architecture is a non-trivial amount of work. It is
exceedingly unlikely that, having taken the decision to drop the
architecture, we would then decide to reintroduce it.

--
Steve Langasek
Debian Developer
Ubuntu Developer
slangasek at ubuntu.com

Also from that thread:

QuoteThe first step would be to all agree on dropping images/installers but we
should keep the end goal of dropping the port in mind ideally soon as well.

On the list of known blockers for removing the i386 port are Steam and
Wine. Solus' snapped Steam is progressing nicely and Steam deb is difficult
to maintain as is [See removal bug]. That leaves coming up with a good way
forward for Wine.

Thanks!
Simon Quigley
Bryan Quigley

So it seems like they knew what they were doing.

We are not yet ready to drop 32 bit support. Canonical should know this

I'd bet Ubuntu will backpaddle. Wonder what Valve would do then, though.