How long will 64bit Ubuntu users have to wait?

[Alex Jones]

Hi

I am not very qualified to comment on this subject, but it seems that
your main beef is with Firefox plugins (Flash?) and multimedia codecs
(WMV?).

Both of the "best" implementations of these plugins/codecs are *closed
source* and *unsupported*.

It is simply out of our hands. Please support open, free codecs.

Thanks for using Ubuntu.

On Sat, 2006-09-09 at 09:38 -0500, Kilz _ wrote:
> Hi Developers
> I love Ubuntu, I have it as my main desktop. I also use it as a server. I am 
> also active on the forums helping 64bit users and beginners where I can. I 
> have written howto's on how to install 32bit firefox with plugins, and wine 
> to 64bit.
> I have asked this question a few times. Now I'm asking it here. How much 
> longer will 64bit systems users be second class citizens? How much longer 
> will we have to jump through hoops to get the 64bit version to work like the 
> 32bit one does? How much longer will 64bit system users be told to install 
> the 32bit version of Ubuntu on the forums. Don't think I'm asking for things 
> that cant be done. Its just things I cant do, even though I have tried.
> I know multiarch is being worked on by Debian and for some strange reason 
> 64bit users have to wait on Debian to do the development. All along I 
> thought one of the reasons for using Ubuntu was so users didn't have to wait 
> on the insanely slow Debian development process. I am also not that happy 
> that the expected version keeps slipping back until Ubuntu becomes 
> multiarch. When rpm and source distro's are already multiarch. SuSE, Fedora, 
> Gentoo, etc.
> In Edgy's release announcement 64bit users were given a slim hope. 
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-announce/2006-April/000064.html we 
> were told of a first taste of multiarch. I cant seem to find that spec in 
> Edgy, can someone point me to it with a link? The more I read I find it may 
> not be until Edgy +2 or +3 before we see it. Is this true? With Intel and 
> AMD both making 64bit chips now, just how long do you think its going to 
> take until the 64bit platform is a majority?
> Next I would like to know why 64bit users cant have a distro that "just 
> works" while we are waiting. Why cant we have a 32bit Firefox and plugins 
> available? Why cant we have a 32bit Wine? Why cant we have a 32bit media 
> player available? They don't even need to be defaults. But why do 64bit 
> users have to follow howto's to install them? Don't tell me it cant be done. 
> I wrote the howto's that install them. I created a 32bit Firefox .deb file 
> most 64bit users use. Don't think it isn't necessary. There are 24,317 hits 
> on my howto http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=1174435 . Don't say 
> that there was no spec, someone else wrote one long ago. 
> https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+spec/32bit-browser-on-amd64 .
> Don't think I haven't asked these questions or I am alone in thinking this 
> way. http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=253127 and 
> http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=203182 . But I haven't gotten a 
> good answer. When I do I don't see anything done. Please tell me I'm wrong 
> and point me towards where its being done if it is.
> 
> Thanks for reading and providing Ubuntu.
> Kilz
> 
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-- 
Alex Jones <alex at weej.com>