Fwd: Change of scope and target market for i386

[flocculant]

On 27/09/17 18:53, Nicholas Skaggs wrote:
> This means 32-bit images / tests can also be removed from the isotracker.
>
> Nicholas
Carefully so it only affects Ubuntu or any flavour that wants to drop 32 
bit ...

:)
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Dimitri John Ledkov <xnox at ubuntu.com>
> Date: Wed, Sep 27, 2017 at 12:16 PM
> Subject: Re: Change of scope and target market for i386
> To: Ubuntu Developers <ubuntu-devel at lists.ubuntu.com>, ubuntu-release <
> ubuntu-release at lists.ubuntu.com>, Ubuntu Desktop Discussion <
> ubuntu-desktop at lists.ubuntu.com>
>
>
> Dear Release team,
>
> Please action the below and remove Ubuntu Desktop i386 daily-live
> images from the release manifest for Beta and Final milestones of
> 17.10 and therefore do not ship ubuntu-desktop-i386.iso artifact for
> 17.10.
>
> As a followup to this thread it has been confirmed that argumentation
> below is sound, and furthermore there is no longer any effective qa or
> testing of the desktop product on actual i386 hardware (explicitly non
> x86_64 CPUs).
>
> There are no other changes requested to d-i, mini.iso, archive, or the
> upgrade paths.
>
> Regards,
>
> Dimitri.
>
>
> On 3 May 2017 at 13:01, Dimitri John Ledkov <xnox at ubuntu.com> wrote:
>> ######
>> NB! this is a mailing list for developers, and this is a _proposal_
>> that I want to discuss with the *buntu developers. There is no need to
>> OMG this, especially since this is a recurring discussion every single
>> development cycle for many years now...
>> ######
>>
>>
>> Hello,
>>
>> Currently Ubuntu provides many installation medias:
>>
>>     * Ubuntu Core snappy architecture images
>>
>>     * Cloud images
>>
>>     * Container images
>>
>>     * Server subiquity img/iso
>>
>>     * Server classic img/iso
>>
>>     * Desktop live
>>
>>     * Netinst
>>
>>     * Board-specific pre-installed builds
>>
>> i386 architecture is changing.
>>
>> It is no longer the default, nor most widely used architecture on the
>> traditional form factors: desktop, laptop, rack servers.
>>
>> But i386 is becoming more of a purpose built architecture, similar to
>> how in the past "embedded" devices label was applied. Today, I would
>> call it an IoT; single purpose device; and a cloud/container guest
>> architecture.
>>
>> Ubuntu website download pages have stopped advertising traditional
>> i386 images for either desktop, server, or cloud, without any
>> significant backslash and without any noticeable drops in the download
>> rates.
>>
>> Therefore I would like to propose the following change of scope for
>> the i386 architecture.
>>
>> = Continue to provide for i386 =
>>
>>     * The Ubuntu archive with security updates
>>
>>     * Ubuntu Core snappy architecture images
>>
>>     * Cloud images
>>
>>     * Container images
>>
>>     * Server subiquity img/iso
>>
>>     * netinst
>>
>> = Discontinue to provide for i386 =
>>
>>     * Server classic img/iso
>>
>>     * Desktop live
>>
>> = Rationale for change =
>>
>> The above images and scope for i386 will:
>>
>>     * Expand and grow deployments in the IoT devices sector
>>
>>     * continue to support the declining i386 classic desktop/server user
> base
>>     * Maintain support for minimal / workload-specific cloud deployments
>>       (cloud & container guests)
>>
>> = Flavors =
>>
>> Flavor leads and developers, please consider if the above structure
>> would also be suitable for your target market and user bases. I.e.
>> Continue to provide packages and the upgrade path, but discontinue to
>> manufacture the i386 full-sized / live-cd installation media.
>>
>> --
>> Regards,
>>
>> Dimitri.
>
>
> --
> Regards,
>
> Dimitri.
>
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