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.
Avehicle7887 Jun 22, 2019
Canonical should know better than to drop 32bit entirely. Ubuntu and derivatives such as Mint are home to many Linux gamers and at some point most (if not all) these users play a 32bit game.
0 Likes
Quoting: arWe are not yet ready to drop 32 bit support. Canonical should know thisWhy “yet”? Why throw away support for older software? There are even open source projects that are not ready to be compiled as 64-bit executable.
The Diablo source recreation effort would be impossible without lib32, because the original source contains parts that are not 64-bit safe.
4 Likes, Who?
As a long-time Debian user, I have no dog in this fight, but man these comments are odd. First, Debian isn't difficult to install.
Second, we're half-way through 2019. When should we drop support for architectures that were obsoleted 20 years ago? Why is no one in these comments finding fault with Valve? Don't get me wrong, I'm very glad and grateful that they support Linux, but at the same time they don't do a very good job of it. Perhaps Steam is easy to install on Ubuntu, I'll never know. On Debain it's an exercise in frustration every time.
Technology moves forward. The people deserving of your ire are those refusing to move forward.
Second, we're half-way through 2019. When should we drop support for architectures that were obsoleted 20 years ago? Why is no one in these comments finding fault with Valve? Don't get me wrong, I'm very glad and grateful that they support Linux, but at the same time they don't do a very good job of it. Perhaps Steam is easy to install on Ubuntu, I'll never know. On Debain it's an exercise in frustration every time.
Technology moves forward. The people deserving of your ire are those refusing to move forward.
1 Likes, Who?
Ha-Ha-Ha! Let the drama begin… *Grabs a popcorn and sits on his desk*
Jokes aside or am I joking at all?
I installed Windows a few weeks back (that solved all Linux related gaming problems one could have - in a instant).
Given the "it's just a little space lost" argument I hear so much lately, it's definitely the best solution.
Until Feral decides to give alternative stores a go (I'm looking at GOG even though I don't really like them, but atleast they are usable), I'm giving them a pass.
If Feral wasn't a Steam exclusive, they would not be a hurt by a move like that at all. Or am I missing any 32bit-only game from Feral?
Jokes aside or am I joking at all?
I installed Windows a few weeks back (that solved all Linux related gaming problems one could have - in a instant).
Given the "it's just a little space lost" argument I hear so much lately, it's definitely the best solution.
Until Feral decides to give alternative stores a go (I'm looking at GOG even though I don't really like them, but atleast they are usable), I'm giving them a pass.
If Feral wasn't a Steam exclusive, they would not be a hurt by a move like that at all. Or am I missing any 32bit-only game from Feral?
0 Likes
Quoting: riddleyAs a long-time Debian user, I have no dog in this fight, but man these comments are odd. First, Debian isn't difficult to install.
Second, we're half-way through 2019. When should we drop support for architectures that were obsoleted 20 years ago? Why is no one in these comments finding fault with Valve? Don't get me wrong, I'm very glad and grateful that they support Linux, but at the same time they don't do a very good job of it. Perhaps Steam is easy to install on Ubuntu, I'll never know. On Debain it's an exercise in frustration every time.
Technology moves forward. The people deserving of your ire are those refusing to move forward.
Nobody is arguing that we should all be using 64-bit distros, but this is a discussion about library support mainly. I'm simplifying, but since so many older games are 32-bit only, unless you have 32-bit library support, you're screwed. Despite knowing this, Canonical have decided to flip the finger at their desktop users and drop that support. Hence the outrage.
14 Likes, Who?
Quoting: riddleyDebian isn't difficult to install.As a person, who uses Ubuntu, Debian, and Arch I agree.
But how do you explain ex. Windows user that to get fresh Nvidia driver and kernel to work with Ryzen he has to open a terminal and type:
sudo echo "deb http://httpredir.debian.org/debian stretch-backports main contrib non-free" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -t stretch-backports linux-image-4.19.0-0.bpo.5-amd64
#do you update it manually every time or is there a meta package?
sudo apt install -t stretch-backports linux-headers-4.19.0-0.bpo.5-amd64
sudo apt install -t stretch-backports nvidia-driverDebian is not my main distro and I would be glad if you can correct me and there is GUI way to do this.
7 Likes, Who?
gradyvuckovic Jun 22, 2019
Valve didn't really have much of a choice. If there's a solution to this, Valve couldn't be expected to commit to figuring it out and fixing it just 3 months. Canonical pulled this out of no where with no warning and just expected everyone to deal with it. Well, no, that's now how running a major OS works. Maybe if you're Microsoft you could get away with that, but not when you're just Canonical. Valve, the Wine devs, everyone will just take the road they've been more or less forced to take, which is dropping support for Ubuntu. Ubuntu is going to suffer, on top of the suffering it's already having and the gradual decline in marketshare that we've already seen over the years. The likely outcome of this is Arch based distros taking off and Ubuntu based distros disappearing rapidly. Hopefully the Linux Mint team's "LMDE" backup plan (Linux Mint Debian Edition) is ready for prime time or not far off it, because it looks like that will likely become the main version of Linux Mint, unless they want to take over doing the 32bit work that Canonical doesn't want to do, but I imagine that would be too much work for the LM team.
Really Canonical, what the fuck?
Really Canonical, what the fuck?
16 Likes, Who?
Quoting: bird_or_cageI wouldn't. I would point him at Windows.Quoting: riddleyDebian isn't difficult to install.As a person, who uses Ubuntu, Debian, and Arch I agree.
But how do you explain ex. Windows user that to get fresh Nvidia driver and kernel to work with Ryzen he has to open a terminal and type:
sudo echo "deb http://httpredir.debian.org/debian stretch-backports main contrib non-free" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -t stretch-backports linux-image-4.19.0-0.bpo.5-amd64
#do you update it manually every time or is there a meta package?
sudo apt install -t stretch-backports linux-headers-4.19.0-0.bpo.5-amd64
sudo apt install -t stretch-backports nvidia-driver
Debian is not my main distro and I would be glad if you can correct me and there is GUI way to do this.
If he was so keen on going GNU/Linux then I would point him to something a bit more like Linux. And then point him at the gigantic amount of text that was written over the years.
0 Likes
What a messy situation. Lets start that I get the sentiment for the decision, I tried to keep my system 64bit only before I recognized that gaming actually works on Linux. But now this will hurt, even if I'm not directly affected with running Fedora.
From what I read the decision to ditch all 32bit thingies was initiated more than a year ago. Unfortunately Valve and SteamPlay really took off in the last year and now that decision has much wider implications than a year ago. New users, developers and Valve plus GoG will (heavily) suffer with this new heavy fragmentation in the Linux Desktop market. The timing is really bad as stated earlier here. I guess especially for Valve this feels like a stab in the back. Even I feel like this.
I really hope that someone at Ubuntu will stand up and scream: "Boys and Girls, that decision seemed sensible a year ago but Linux on the Desktop has changed quite significantly since then. We really should reconsider...".
Last edited by jens on 22 June 2019 at 1:00 pm UTC
From what I read the decision to ditch all 32bit thingies was initiated more than a year ago. Unfortunately Valve and SteamPlay really took off in the last year and now that decision has much wider implications than a year ago. New users, developers and Valve plus GoG will (heavily) suffer with this new heavy fragmentation in the Linux Desktop market. The timing is really bad as stated earlier here. I guess especially for Valve this feels like a stab in the back. Even I feel like this.
I really hope that someone at Ubuntu will stand up and scream: "Boys and Girls, that decision seemed sensible a year ago but Linux on the Desktop has changed quite significantly since then. We really should reconsider...".
Last edited by jens on 22 June 2019 at 1:00 pm UTC
15 Likes, Who?
First of all, wow to what's been happening.
My thoughts are now are that Canonical might be rethinking the support of 32-bit multilib. But it looks like Valve has made up their mind with the tweet that was sent out by Pierre-Loup Griffais.
I'm curious to see what happens to Ubuntu in distrowatch and how system76 supports Pop_OS! with 32-bit multilib or will they ditch Ubuntu for another distro later down the line?
Right now I'm using Pop_OS! 19.04 on my Dell Inspiron Gaming laptop and I'm really happy with it (finding it really stable). I've used Manjaro for almost two years before switching to Pop_OS!, and I really like using Manjaro as well. Most likely I'm going to switch back to Manjaro and use KDE since Valve also announced more funding on both KDE and Xorg.
Disto hopping......so much fun :D
My thoughts are now are that Canonical might be rethinking the support of 32-bit multilib. But it looks like Valve has made up their mind with the tweet that was sent out by Pierre-Loup Griffais.
I'm curious to see what happens to Ubuntu in distrowatch and how system76 supports Pop_OS! with 32-bit multilib or will they ditch Ubuntu for another distro later down the line?
Right now I'm using Pop_OS! 19.04 on my Dell Inspiron Gaming laptop and I'm really happy with it (finding it really stable). I've used Manjaro for almost two years before switching to Pop_OS!, and I really like using Manjaro as well. Most likely I'm going to switch back to Manjaro and use KDE since Valve also announced more funding on both KDE and Xorg.
Disto hopping......so much fun :D
1 Likes, Who?
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