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

OK. Let's see if Valve will be consistent in their decision:
https://appletoolbox.com/2019/06/macos-catalina-and-your-32-bit-apps

Quoting: Satoru

Quoting: vectorI 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

At least Apple

1) CLEARLY communicated that 32-bit and OpenGL was deprecated YEARS in advance
2) Did not hem and haw about 'well maybe we'll get rid of it in 20.04'
3) CLEARLY made an OS update that bugged users about their apps potentially not working in future releases
4) Only after 2-3 years of such updates, notification, etc is 32-bit support finally ending with OSX Catalina
5) OpenGL was declared deprecated last year, it still is not offically dead even in Catalina. yes its likely soon, but Apple has been screaming about converting to Metal for years. to the point where Aspyr and Feral back ported their entire steam library to Metal last year

Canonical's plan

1) "You have 4 months sorry!"

If Canonical is going to copy all of Apple's bad decisions, then they should also copy the part where Apple spent YEARS clearly communicating to both devs and users, with popups and warning. As opposed to dropping a bomb on people with 4 months notice, and then when users upgrade to 19.10 in 4 months suddenly 50% of the Linux games will stop working and Proton/Wine also dies with it.

So much this↑. Seriously, WTF do you mean you're removing an important part of the ecosystem with only 4 months notice? This is not a serious approach. If they wanted to test a 64 bit only Ubuntu, Canonical should have said it's a test. Deprecating 32 bit installers was clearly communicated and few people were taken by surprise. If Ubuntu announced they're marking 32-bit multilib as deprecated, they could have done so, but removing it out of the blue is a terrible idea.

I think one of the reasons steam is a 32-bit application despite supporting only 64-bit OSs is so that users don't notice whether the games themselves are 64 or 32-bit. Since installing the package pulls in 32 bit, you have both anyway.

I would be OK with openSuse Leap becoming the new Linux home for Steam. I remember that installing Nvidia drivers broke the package manager and that's how I ended up with Kubuntu, but I'm sure they could solve it. I head rumours steam was considering Flatpack as a way of cleanly packaging the old steam runtime and moving to a new one, but that was last year so it might have just been rumours.

Well with 32bit going away, it takes away that famous statement for Linux."Linux makes older computers come back to life". Yeah of course we could still use older versions of Distros, but that support wont be there any more.


Last edited by Orkultus on 22 June 2019 at 4:53 pm UTC

F**k...... :O

Quoting: gradyvuckovic

Quoting: keanI would even pay for it if everything works well.

I'd happily sign up to that, $10/month for a Valve developed Linux OS which provides the best possible gaming experience for Linux? Hell yes, give me that.

Kinda off-topic but I'm somewhat terrified that the idea of a 'subscription model' OS comes so naturally to people nowadays.

I seriously don't want to be pressured into changing distros, so this is a tragedy for me from both sides. I've been using Ubuntu-MATE for years and I'm very comfortable with it, so this feels in a way like being evicted from my home. It's not pleasant to say the least.

Quoting: NezchanI seriously don't want to be pressured into changing distros, so this is a tragedy for me from both sides. I've been using Ubuntu-MATE for years and I'm very comfortable with it, so this feels in a way like being evicted from my home. It's not pleasant to say the least.

Then write to Ubuntu, as the rest of you who are on Ubuntu and don't want to forced off the distro should do...

Quoting: mphuZOK. Let's see if Valve will be consistent in their decision:
https://appletoolbox.com/2019/06/macos-catalina-and-your-32-bit-apps

MacOS as different case. When Apple remove 32bit support, there is no other way. You want play Duke Nuke 3d? Valve on Mac can say "It Apple thing. We have hands cuffed. But you can be blamed, you know, Apple do this regularly, remember PowerPC and you chosed MacOS" but in Ubuntu case, Valve recomended distro and now what? I like to play old game sometimes. Yes they can build Steam client for 64bit. Now i think valve start distribute 64bit steam, and change officialy suported distro to another. For wine, i don't know what they do. CodeWeavers need their solution support 32 bit windows app, because without that they are done. "Your acounting windows software is 32bit? And you use ubuntu? Great, that we cant do... can you pls pay for nothink?"

Quoting: Arten

Quoting: mphuZOK. Let's see if Valve will be consistent in their decision:
https://appletoolbox.com/2019/06/macos-catalina-and-your-32-bit-apps

MacOS as different case. When Apple remove 32bit support, there is no other way. You want play Duke Nuke 3d? Valve on Mac can say "It Apple thing. We have hands cuffed. But you can be blamed, you know, Apple do this regularly, remember PowerPC and you chosed MacOS" but in Ubuntu case, Valve recomended distro and now what? I like to play old game sometimes. Yes they can build Steam client for 64bit. Now i think valve start distribute 64bit steam, and change officialy suported distro to another. For wine, i don't know what they do. CodeWeavers need their solution support 32 bit windows app, because without that they are done. "Your acounting windows software is 32bit? And you use ubuntu? Great, that we cant do... can you pls pay for nothink?"

I heard from an anonymous source on the Internet that Valve plans to pivot away from macOS to one of the many other interchangeable Darwin distributions which will be maintaining 32-bit support. Valve may be developing, or have already developed, its own Darwin distribution.


Last edited by vector on 22 June 2019 at 5:58 pm UTC

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.

I want to be clear I agree with the first part, that Debian isn't difficult to install.

The other part... we support the libraries for compatibility because there is old software that is only available as binaries that we otherwise would not be able to run. This is why most people are pissed about this.

There are still many things that would break with ditching 32 bit library compatibility.
Someone should compile a list of all the things this breaks.
I know of Wine, dgen (genesis emulator), zsnes, PCSX2, steam.