Fwd: Proposal: Let's drop i386

[charlie]

i think it's a good thing to see i386 getting dropped because that kind 
of hardware's old and obsolete anyway. 64 bit computers are cheaper now 
and shouldn't be too much of a burden for anyone to acquire something. i 
scored a Dell Precision T1600 workstation for $35 about a month ago and 
it's a 64 bit quad core Xeon processor. just saying.


On 05/16/2018 04:17 PM, Valorie Zimmerman wrote:
> Hello folks, I'm forwarding the following email to Ubuntu-devel ML to
> 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. I'm
> reluctant to do this, however, I do not have the time or technical
> knowledge required to do this on my own, and the Kubuntu Devels want
> Kubuntu to stop issuing i386 images.
>
> Therefore, we are going to do that. For those of you who still want
> and need i386, you will have 3 years of support from us on the LTS.
> This means that when we're ready for the point releases (18,04.1, 2
> etc.) I will still be asking for testers and expect you i386 people to
> step up and do that.
>
> For now the i386 *packages* in the archive are not going away.
> However, I think the clock is ticking for them as well. On the other
> hand, this will mean more attention from devels on the newer ARM stuff
> which will be useful for those with Raspi or little ARM
> laptop/netbooks.
>
> Discussion is welcome, but I'm afraid that the decision has been
> taken, and we'll be moving ahead to 18.10 without i386.
>
> Valorie
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Bryan Quigley <bryan.quigley at canonical.com>
> Date: Wed, May 9, 2018 at 1:07 PM
> Subject: Proposal: Let's drop i386
> To: Ubuntu Developers <ubuntu-devel at lists.ubuntu.com>, Ubuntu Core
> developers <ubuntu-devel-discuss at lists.ubuntu.com>
> Cc: Dimitri John Ledkov <xnox at ubuntu.com>
>
> Hello,
>
> Less and less non-amd64-compatible i386 hardware is available for
> consumers to buy today from anything but computer part recycling
> centers. The last of these machines were manufactured over a decade
> ago, and support from an increasing number of upstream projects has
> ended.
>
> Ubuntu and flavors just completed the 18.04 release cycle. This
> released version will either be supported until 2021 or 2023,
> depending on the product, team, and willingness to support it. At that
> point in time, the majority of these machines are approaching two
> decades old.
>
>>> Previous 2016 thread: And in 2018, the question will come if we can effectively provide security support on i386.
> We can't.  Machines running i386 Ubuntu which are capable of running
> amd64 Ubuntu are vulnerable to the critical Meltdown vulnerability
> where they wouldn't be if they were running amd64. (Some actual i386
> hardware simply isn't vulnerable, but some is).
>
> We still have a relatively high number if i386 downloads but that
> doesn't mean users machines are not capable of amd64. For the flavors
> remaining today on i386 here are some i386 to amd64 ratios for 18.04:
>
> Lubuntu cdimage - 0.87
> Lubuntu tracker - 0.64
> Lubuntu error (pcmanfm) - 0.11
> Xubuntu cdimage - 0.49
> Xubuntu tracker -  0.30
> Xubuntu error (thunar) - 0.10
> Kylin tracker - 0.30
> Kylin error (engrampa) - 0.10
> Kubuntu cdimage - 0.14
> Kubuntu tracker - 0.12
> Kubuntu error (kinit) - 0.07
>
> The data retrieved from cdimage is for a limited time period on May
> 7th. All cdimage statistics included many hundreds to thousands of
> downloads (except Ubuntu Kylin due to it using it's own CDN, so not
> being included here). The torrent tracker results are available here:
> http://torrent.ubuntu.com:6969/.
> The error tracker statistics come from comparing top bugs shared
> between i386 and amd64 over last week. Bugs that affect multiple
> flavors are not included.
> It's not fully understood why there is a large discrepancy between the
> error tracker and other sources - but it's possible apport doesn't
> work as well in low memory.
>
> With Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Budgie, and Ubuntu Studio joining Ubuntu
> Desktop and Server in not offering i386 support in order to focus
> their efforts, and these statistics in mind, we (flavors) should all
> join them. Now is the ideal time to do so, because it's before the
> Cosmic cycle is really under way, and if support were continued for
> i386, we don't want users to meet a dead end with respect to upgrade
> paths, and would support it until 20.04 (which means either five or
> seven more years of i386). Users still have the support cycle of 18.04
> to use their machines and get full support, so these machines will
> still be able to function. But with no new machines being
> manufactured, we have to deprecate support at some point.
>
> The 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
>
> [2016 email thread]
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2016-June/039420.html
> (was Installation Media and supportability of i386 in 18.04 LTS Re:
> Ubuntu Desktop on i386)
> [removal bug] https://pad.lv/1759715
>
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