Dropping 32 bit support (i.e. games support) will hurt Ubuntu. Big time

Hi,

I just want to share these thoughts with Ubuntu and Canonical decision makers (i.e. @popey and others).

Dropping 32 bit support, which implies dropping Steam/wine/Proton support, will hurt Ubuntu in the short but especially medium/long term.

Games is what keeps a young audience coming back to a given OS. Games is most likely what young CS/Engineering students do when they have got free time. Is what keeps this young crowd focused on one particular OS/Distro.
I hope you realize that your young gamers of today, are your professional developers/decision makers of tomorrow.

How many folks recommending Ubuntu at the workplace are doing so because they used it (and still use) at home/privately when they were younger?

Gaming is such a pivotal factor that Microsoft invented their own API to ensure that Windows would stay the prime platform for gaming. They understood that - very well. And they did everything in their power to do so. Supporting Gaming and backward compatibility has never been an afterthought.

Please don’t destroy your core userbase, which will be your future customers.

I beg you to revert your decision.

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I am an indie game developer and long time Ubuntu user. This decision to drop 32 bit support will force me to switch to another distro. I really don’t want to do that, but I won’t have a choice. I hope that Canonical changes their minds.

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I understand why ubuntu do this, afterall my works doesn’t affected by this decision, only my game collection.
I still have faith on ubuntu, waiting for their promised solution for steam and maybe for wine.
I plan to do some testing with flatpak for lutris.

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without 32 bit support guess i will be moving away from ubuntu, its a shame but as soon as i get used to it probably wont come back, it will also force me to change the various ubuntu installations i did around my family

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You won’t have to move far if you don’t have to. There’s Pop!_OS

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I’ve been using Ubuntu since 4.10 after using Debian since '94. My whole professional life I’ve used Linux; coder, devops, architecture, and management. So I am aware of the work required to support a complete architecture. Even with such costs it is a benefit to Ubuntu even if it can be difficult to see as it is an indirect benefit. Ubuntu has excelled in the Linux market due to it’s marketing, it’s focus on usability, good UI/UX, integration and support has meant that many technologists prefer it and so act as channel intermediaries that provide complementary marketing efforts on Ubuntu’s behalf. In layman’s terms it means that coders prefer Ubuntu because it works well for them as a desktop and hence are more likely to support it and promote it at work, even more so when they become more senior within their organisations. Dropping 32bit arch has the potential to break this chain of goodwill. Canonical as an organisation needs to form a plan where the benefits of this is properly recognised so that the necessary resources are allocated and supported. Engineering needs marketing and marketing needs engineering. Maybe some out of the box thinking is required; maybe even unusual ideas like a Patreon account (or similar) that can help fund this, I know I would contribute.

As for myself if there isn’t any mechanism where I can support this (with cash!) or this decision isn’t reversed I will leave Ubuntu with a heavy heart as I believe it is leaving an important halo affect segment of its user base behind. It would be a great pity after 15 years.

Instead, I suggest, help us to help you!

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Exactly my same feelings. I hope Ubuntu and Canonical reverse their decision.

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waiting for their promised solution for steam and maybe for wine.

both steam and wine have announced that they will not support ubuntu 19.10, and valve is currently looking into other linux distros to focus on

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This would be especially devastating - like it or not, games & gamers drive inovation, both at the software and hardware levels. Please reconsider dropping 32 bit support.

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Hello Canonical,
I’ve been using Ubuntu exclusively since 2012, and Steam shortly after that. My experience with Ubuntu and Steam has been getting better and better all the time, especially since Valve introduced Proton. Though I use my computers for other things, gaming is indeed one of the main things. With the drop of 32 bit libraries, I would have no choice but to switch to another (non-Ubuntu) distrubution. And you know what a pain it is for people to switch!!! but I’d have to in order to be able to use my computer for a big chunk of its intended purpose. Please reconsider. Perhaps consider putting a price on it, and see if the community will crowdfund it.

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Ubuntu has always been the best distro for causal users to start with. While I understand that 32-bit libraries are not needed in most developer day-to-day tasks, most tech-savvy casual users have at least a couple games on Steam that they expect will run on Ubuntu.

As a previous user added, these casual users are tomorrow’s future developers. I started using Ubuntu years ago when it was one of the only solid choices for workstation support, and have used it (more or less) ever since.

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I have several games installed already that require 32 bit support, mostly ones that were made in the 90’s. Wonderful games like Creatures Internet Edition (yes, there’s a linux version) will become fully inaccessible with this change. Being able to boot up retro games is something I take pride in as a gamer. I’ll be very sad to lose this.

I would like to express the same feelings.
I like ubuntu as a distro, you are one of the few distros that people who arnt into linux know about.

Dropping 32 bit support would be a grave mistake not just for games, emulators, but there are many more apps and smaller processors used in nieche areas that use 32 bit cause they dont need more than 3.4 GB of ram etc. (Microwaves etc)

Thats why windows didn’t drop 32 bit app support and even when we go to 128 bit computers. People will always want to play there old 32 bit games.

I replay also some old linux and windows games from time to time in Ubuntu like Croc 2, Bugs Bunny Lost In Time, Toy Story 2 etc

I love that with Wine, Ubuntu can play some old games that windows 10 can not.

So Please do not drop 32 bit software support

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I have been using Ubuntu since 4.10 and it would be truly sad to have to switch to another Linux distribution. Please reconsider your decision to drop 32bit support. For many of us it is crucial.

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It already hurt Linux https://www.webtekno.com/haber/amp/71096
These news sites are straight up talking like Linux gaming is ended

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Please Canonical, Valve has just done a great job making Linux a viable platform for playing games, don’t undo all of their good work by breaking 32-bit game titles and related software. Ubuntu has become the de-facto Linux gaming distribution, I don’t want that to change.

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Ubuntu, as both a gamer and a cross-platform software developer, if your OS drops 32 bit support I will be unable to continue to use it, or any of its derivatives. I understand that 32-bit platforms are an old thing, but much highly relevant software continues to depend on that instruction set and my current usage of your platform will be impossible without i386 support. It is my greatest concern that not only Ubuntu, but the reputation of Linux as a whole will be negatively impacted in the long run, after an otherwise fantastic few years.

I understand dropping the default of 32-bit support, in the interest of progress; but it should not become an impossibility. Intel once made the same mistake with their IA-64 processors, when they dropped support for 32-bit instruction sets in the interest of going purely 64-bit; AMD later brought in amd64 supporting both and for some time had dominated the market. No one was ready, culturally or financially, to leave behind their old equipment. Please learn from this mistake.

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Please Canonical, talk to Valve or at least Wine and try to understand why 32-bit is still an important use case.

Valve has done a ton for Ubuntu. Ubuntu + Steam works so well at the moment it would senseless to break that!

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this is such a bad move. reconsider!

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Uh… another and probably last reason to migrate away from ubuntu. I just have to decide if I want debian or gentoo

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