i386 architecture will be dropped starting with eoan (Ubuntu 19.10)
Thomas Ward
teward at thomas-ward.net
Mon Jun 24 16:24:59 UTC 2019
According to Steve on Ubuntu Discourse [1]:
> I’m sorry that we’ve given anyone the impression that we are “dropping
support for i386 applications”. That’s simply not the case. What we are
dropping is updates to the i386 libraries, which will be frozen at the
18.04 LTS versions. But there is every intention to ensure that there is
a clear story for how i386 applications (including games) can be run on
versions of Ubuntu later than 19.10.
Not sure if this matters, but this is just dropping *updates* to the
libs, and they'll be perpetually frozen at the 18.04 version of the
libraries. Clear guidelines will still need applied, yes, but the point
still stands this isn't 'eradicate the i386 libraries' it's 'we just
won't update them, they'll be frozen in time from 2018 versions'.
So I think there's some misunderstandings here about what exactly is
going on...
[1]
https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/i386-architecture-will-be-dropped-starting-with-eoan-ubuntu-19-10/11263/84?u=d0od
On 6/23/19 12:51 PM, Mohamed Ikbel Boulabiar wrote:
> Hi,
>
> As a ubuntu user and supporter, and as I have pushed for this
> blueprint from 2010
> https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/appdevs-dx-n-multitouch-and-games
> I want to comment this decision that it seems has many many
> consequences. Specially for Wine and Steam.
> https://itsfoss.com/ubuntu-19-10-drops-32-bit-support/
>
> Not supporting very old hardware is a thing, not allowing old programs
> to run on a new ubuntu version is a very different matter.
> In the world of OS, there are 2 models that worked well:
> 1. The Microsoft way: Supporting old programs and most of hardware no
> matter what this would affect new versions (and sometimes stability),
> while having good commercial department that makes companies buy
> https://www.windowscentral.com/how-make-old-desktop-apps-run-again-windows-10
>
> 2. The Apple way: Supporting a small set of in-house hardware, which
> means that hardware themselves and selling it for a big amount of
> money while maintaining stability of programs, developing the required
> set of applications used by developers and creators or asking other
> big companies to support the hardware and the OS into the most
> specific details (hardware acceleration, battery optimisation, a
> specific hardware like the touch bar etc.).
> (Chromebooks fall into this category, a set of selected well supported
> hardware)
>
> In the decision of removing the support of old applications like Steam
> from ubuntu, does the decision reflect one of the above?
> Some big companies can dictate what users and developers can do, but
> before this, you need a huge market share and so developers can't
> ignore you, and keep paying each year for the application to stay on
> the app store, make forced updates to support new dictations etc.
>
> In a perfect world, all people will be using 64bit free software that
> runs perfectly and for free, but we don't live in a perfect world. We
> need Adobe to release its software for Linux because that's what all
> designers use (yes ALL, just go to any design conference), we need an
> adequate office suite because that's what companies use and have as
> documents for many decades already, and we need the platform to
> support running new games from big publishers.
>
> Looking into the past, it's very difficult to target desktop Linux,
> the software stack changes very quickly, the desktop itself changes
> and breaks basic interaction reflexes, and applications will break
> with no continuous updates. From 2009 to now, almost nothing is made
> to welcome designers and creators to Linux. LibreOffice still breaks
> docx and pptx layout while newly made from scratch alternatives with
> fewer developers support MS Office files better: onlyoffice.com
> <http://onlyoffice.com>
>
> Linux worked very well on servers and in the cloud because that part
> of the stack is more stable. It's even hidden from the end user.
> However, when it comes to other ubuntu users, we have mainly
> researchers (AI, machine learning, computer vision, ...), part of the
> developers (the others have a Macbook Pro), and people with limited
> resources to buy other hardware (I suppose there are some internal
> user base analytics?).
>
> So the question I am asking, putting aside per version goals, how you
> see the future in 5, 10 or 20 years from now ? An OS with a list of
> key components that entreprise customers can use and switch to (for
> desktop and for servers). What's the new bug #1 now?
> Or maybe everybody will be using FuchsiaOS ? I don't want that..
>
> My apologies for my long mail, and the kind-of rant.
>
> Kind Regards,
> Ikbel
>
>
> On Tue, Jun 18, 2019 at 5:38 PM Steve Langasek
> <steve.langasek at ubuntu.com <mailto:steve.langasek at ubuntu.com>> wrote:
>
> Last year, the Ubuntu developer community considered the question
> of whether
> to continue carrying forward the i386 architecture in the Ubuntu
> archive for
> future releases.[1] The discussion at the time was inconclusive,
> but in
> light of the strong possibility that we might not include i386 as
> a release
> architecture in 20.04 LTS, we took the proactive step to disable
> upgrades
> from 18.04 to 18.10 for i386 systems[2], to avoid accidentally
> stranding
> users on an interim release with 9 months of support instead of
> letting them
> continue to run Ubuntu 18.04 LTS with its 5 years of standard support.
>
> In February of this year, I also posted to communicate the
> timeline in which
> we would take a final decision about i386 support in 20.04 LTS[3],
> namely,
> that we would decide in the middle of 2019.
>
> The middle of 2019 has now arrived. The Ubuntu engineering team has
> reviewed the facts before us and concluded that we should not
> continue to
> carry i386 forward as an architecture. Consequently, i386 will
> not be
> included as an architecture for the 19.10 release, and we will
> shortly begin
> the process of disabling it for the eoan series across Ubuntu
> infrastructure.
>
> While this means we will not provide 32-bit builds of new upstream
> versions
> of libraries, there are a number of ways that 32-bit applications can
> continue to be made available to users of later Ubuntu releases,
> as detailed
> in [4]. We will be working to polish the 32-bit support story
> over the
> course of the 19.10 development cycle. To follow the evolution of
> this
> support, you can participate in the discourse thread at [5].
>
> [1]
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2018-May/040310.html
> [2]
> https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-release-upgrader/1:18.10.10
> [3]
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2019-February/040598.html
> [4]
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2018-May/040348.html
> [5]
> https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/i386-architecture-will-be-dropped-starting-with-eoan-ubuntu-19-10/11263/2
>
> --
> Steve Langasek
> --
> ubuntu-devel-announce mailing list
> ubuntu-devel-announce at lists.ubuntu.com
> <mailto:ubuntu-devel-announce at lists.ubuntu.com>
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-announce
>
>
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