Fwd: Proposal: Let's drop i386

[Stephen Morris]

On 8/8/18 6:43 pm, Valorie Zimmerman wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 7, 2018 at 3:05 PM, Stephen Morris <samorris at netspace.net.au> wrote:
>> On 11/7/18 1:55 pm, Nils Kassube wrote:
>>> Stephen Morris wrote:
>>>> On 17/5/18 9:17 am, Valorie Zimmerman wrote:
>>>>> explain the thinking on the part of the Ubuntu developers as to why
>>>>> they are discontinuing the i386 images. For us, this would mean that
>>>>> the 18.04 LTS is the last i386 ISO that we will be publishing.
>>>>> For now the i386 *packages* in the archive are not going away.
>>>> Is this article saying that from 18.10 onwards people are not going to
>>>> be able to run 32 bit applications on their 64 bit images?
>>> No, if you read the important parts again (see above) you should notice
>>> that the i386 packages will still be available. The only thing removed
>>> are the i386 images. The term "images" refers to the install images,
>>> i.e. you won't get the ISO images to create install media for i386
>>> machines.
>>
>> Yes 18.04 is the last i386 iso, but Valorie also says the she believes the
>> i386 packages only have a limited lifetime and her closing remark says that
>> 18.10 will be without i386. She does say that for the 18.04.1 etc point
>> releases that the i386 packages will be there but her closing remark makes
>> it sound like they are gone with 18.10. If I have misinterpreted her closing
>> statement I apologise, but if I have misinterpreted it then it needs more
>> clarification around exactly what is meant so that it is not open to
>> misinterpretation.
>>
>> regards,
>>
>> Steve
>>
>>> Nils
> The i386 *packages* will probably disappear one by one over time. I
> doubt that is tied in any way to Ubuntu releases, but rather to
> upstream support. When a package is supported and people want it, in
> general it is available, as developers have time to update packaging.
> When upstream begins to stop making even bugfix releases, packages
> begin bit-rotting, and eventually will be deprecated.
>
> So, if you depend on some i386 package, please support those upstream
> developers! File good bug reports, respond when asked to test out
> fixes, and encourage them to make new releases. When there *is* a new
> release, file a bug `ubuntu-bug packagename` in the commandline, and
> fill out a "needs packaging" bug report on launchpad. Again, remain
> responsive (and even gently remind your favorite packagers) to
> inquiries on the bug report and remember to thank and otherwise
> support your hard-working volunteer packagers, testers, documentation
> writers and others who provide you -- for free -- the tools which make
> your life better. :-)

The problem with this is that products like steam, which download 
components from upstream when run (particularly when run the first time, 
where it downloads a lot of packages, including packages named for 
Ubuntu even on other linux distributions), but still require 32 bit 
versions of standard linux packages even though 64 bit versions of those 
packages already exist and have existed for some time. I have been in 
the situation on another distribution where steam refused to run because 
I only had 64 bit versions of packages it needed installed, and I had to 
manually install the 32 bit versions of the same packages so that steam 
would run.


regards,

Steve


>
> Valorie
>