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

Quoting: bird_or_cage

Quoting: sub

Quoting: TemplateRI personally think, that Valve should create a Linux-Distribution, which is NOT based on Debian or Arch. It would be much better to have more controls, hat should remain and what not.

BUT Valve should also recreate a new desktop environment, which aims more for PC instead of Console.

And call it

Crowbar Linux

Or Free Man's Linux

Linux 2 Ep 1

Quoting: Tuxee

Quoting: BeamboomI'll not be surprised if Canonical backs out of this decision again, seeing the reception.

Already happened:

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2019/06/is-ubuntu-not-dropping-32-bit-app-support-after-all

QuoteI’m sorry that we’ve given anyone the impression that we are ‘dropping support for i386 applications‘. It is simply not the case. What we are dropping is updates to the i386 libraries, which will be frozen at the 18.04 LTS versions.

Quoting: Tuxee

Quoting: BeamboomI'll not be surprised if Canonical backs out of this decision again, seeing the reception.

Already happened:

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2019/06/is-ubuntu-not-dropping-32-bit-app-support-after-all

QuoteI’m sorry that we’ve given anyone the impression that we are ‘dropping support for i386 applications‘. It is simply not the case. What we are dropping is updates to the i386 libraries, which will be frozen at the 18.04 LTS versions.

That is not backing out, it is a clarification of their plans. They never said that 32 bit programs would not be able tun run any more. A lot of us are worried that the new ways will be Inferior to what we have today, especially in regard to how complicated it will be for users. And I still are.

A lot of online publication and posters claimed that it would be impossible, but this is Linux not Mac or Windows so there will always be ways for users to do what they want differently than their distribution providers. Do not believe everything you read.

But distributions are about convenience, after all we could all do a Linux from scratch installation and not use any distribution after all. So if they make it a lot harder for users we should go elsewhere.

Quoting: Redface

Quoting: Tuxee

Quoting: BeamboomI'll not be surprised if Canonical backs out of this decision again, seeing the reception.

Already happened:

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2019/06/is-ubuntu-not-dropping-32-bit-app-support-after-all

QuoteI’m sorry that we’ve given anyone the impression that we are ‘dropping support for i386 applications‘. It is simply not the case. What we are dropping is updates to the i386 libraries, which will be frozen at the 18.04 LTS versions.

Quoting: Tuxee

Quoting: BeamboomI'll not be surprised if Canonical backs out of this decision again, seeing the reception.

Already happened:

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2019/06/is-ubuntu-not-dropping-32-bit-app-support-after-all

QuoteI’m sorry that we’ve given anyone the impression that we are ‘dropping support for i386 applications‘. It is simply not the case. What we are dropping is updates to the i386 libraries, which will be frozen at the 18.04 LTS versions.

That is not backing out, it is a clarification of their plans. They never said that 32 bit programs would not be able tun run any more. A lot of us are worried that the new ways will be Inferior to what we have today, especially in regard to how complicated it will be for users. And I still are.

A lot of online publication and posters claimed that it would be impossible, but this is Linux not Mac or Windows so there will always be ways for users to do what they want differently than their distribution providers. Do not believe everything you read.

But distributions are about convenience, after all we could all do a Linux from scratch installation and not use any distribution after all. So if they make it a lot harder for users we should go elsewhere.

Still, it means that Canonical won't maintain it anymore... If they don't someone will have to. It will then become external to Ubuntu and will have to be added like an optional ppa (my understanding). Just another hurdle to new Linux users that want a plug&play experience.

Am I wrong?


Last edited by Mohandevir on 23 June 2019 at 4:23 pm UTC

Quoting: deathxxxIf Valve move to FreeBSD, that will be great! Because BSD is more faster than Linux. Only AMD cards will have no binary drivers, so will force to use Mesa. For Nvidia is OK. PlayStation uses BSD already and we saw how it run.

Oh yes of course! Valve scraps everything they did for Linux (and community) and goes for BSD, turning to the vivid BSD gaming community for support, hoping for engine vendors, hardware vendors, middleware vendors, game developers to support their brand of BSD .. or doing it all themselves, because Canonical stops delivering Linux 32bit libs? I don't think so.

Quoting: Nevertheless

Quoting: deathxxxIf Valve move to FreeBSD, that will be great! Because BSD is more faster than Linux. Only AMD cards will have no binary drivers, so will force to use Mesa. For Nvidia is OK. PlayStation uses BSD already and we saw how it run.

Oh yes of course! Valve scraps everything they did for Linux (and community) and goes for BSD, turning to the vivid BSD gaming community for support, hoping for engine vendors, hardware vendors, middleware vendors, game developers to support their brand of BSD .. or doing it all themselves, because Canonical stops delivering Linux 32bit libs? I don't think so.

<3

Quoting: Mohandevir

Quoting: Redface

Quoting: Tuxee

Quoting: BeamboomI'll not be surprised if Canonical backs out of this decision again, seeing the reception.

Already happened:

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2019/06/is-ubuntu-not-dropping-32-bit-app-support-after-all

QuoteI’m sorry that we’ve given anyone the impression that we are ‘dropping support for i386 applications‘. It is simply not the case. What we are dropping is updates to the i386 libraries, which will be frozen at the 18.04 LTS versions.

Quoting: Tuxee

Quoting: BeamboomI'll not be surprised if Canonical backs out of this decision again, seeing the reception.

Already happened:

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2019/06/is-ubuntu-not-dropping-32-bit-app-support-after-all

QuoteI’m sorry that we’ve given anyone the impression that we are ‘dropping support for i386 applications‘. It is simply not the case. What we are dropping is updates to the i386 libraries, which will be frozen at the 18.04 LTS versions.

That is not backing out, it is a clarification of their plans. They never said that 32 bit programs would not be able tun run any more. A lot of us are worried that the new ways will be Inferior to what we have today, especially in regard to how complicated it will be for users. And I still are.

A lot of online publication and posters claimed that it would be impossible, but this is Linux not Mac or Windows so there will always be ways for users to do what they want differently than their distribution providers. Do not believe everything you read.

But distributions are about convenience, after all we could all do a Linux from scratch installation and not use any distribution after all. So if they make it a lot harder for users we should go elsewhere.

Still, it means that Canonical won't maintain it anymore... If they don't someone will have to. It will then become external to Ubuntu and will have to be added like an optional ppa (my understanding). Just another hurdle to new Linux users that want a plug&play experience.

Am I wrong?

They will maintain 18.04 for 3 more years, so also if one gets it from a LXD container, snap or flatpak. But after that not any more unless they put the needed 32 bit libraries in the AMD64 repositories like they already do for 32bit glibc and plan for the proprietary nvidia drivers. But who knows if they will do that.

I had read somewhere they MESA 18.x being the last 32-bit version will make it impossible to use GPUs bought after 2019.

Also if I get to take a stab at a new Steam named OS I might suggest a Linux named *whistles* GLaDOS

Quoting: puppieshatecapitalismEverything else either has short support periods (Fedora), feels unpolished (OpenSUSE), is perhaps too technical (Debian), or is a hobby project by a few developers (basically everything not already mentioned).

That is why Valve long ago should have thought about developing its own distribution. And do not wait until someone sticks a knife in their backs.

Quoting: ElectricPrismAlso if I get to take a stab at a new Steam named OS I might suggest a Linux named *whistles* GLaDOS

Great!

But wait... GLaDOS is basically an evil piece of software that tries to manipulate and kill you. :D

Quoting: einherjarThanks Canonical :><:

Now we will have lots of game devs and publishers saying:
"See, there is no reliable Distro in the Linux world. It doesn't make sense to ship software for Linux"

No doubt we will. But they will be fools to do so. Look, Microsoft and Apple make stupid decisions all the time. When they do, just exactly what can you do about it? Can you switch to a different Windows or Mac OS distro?
This is a time to celebrate the fact that Linux distros are not monopolies.