The second major casualty of Ubuntu’s announced removalof 32 bit compatibility from 19.10 and up? It’s Valve’s Steam, as announced by Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais:
Ubuntu 19.10 and future releases will not be officially supported by Steam or recommended to our users. We will evaluate ways to minimize breakage for existing users, but will also switch our focus to a different distribution, currently TBD.
That’s a pretty serious blow to Ubuntu – and derivatives – users.
And in response to all the negative feedback Ubuntu reversed their decision, so let’s see how Vlave responds.
https://ubuntu.com/blog/statement-on-32-bit-i386-packages-for-ubuntu-19-10-and-20-04-lts
Thom Holwerda,
No kidding, these events will be very consequential for linux gaming. I\d say maybe Mint linux could fill the gap fairly naturally as a very close relative to ubuntu, but realistically I don’t know if they actually have the resources to do it themselves, not to mention a small marketshare. There’s redhat/centos, although those don’t usually evoke images of the gamer types. Maybe valve could produce it’s own linux distro, let’s call it steam os. It would explicitly have everything users needed to run all games be it 32 or 64bit, oh wait…
https://www.pcgamer.com/what-happened-to-steam-machines/
Yeah this is concerning.
Edit:
Thanks you kfet for the ubuntu update link, these worries can be put off till another day!
Even Microsoft was unable to escape from gaming compatibility, how on Earth Ubuntu thought they could get away with this?
Did you know Windows 95 had a special mode with Win 3.1 APIs, just that a buggy game (SimCity) would not crash:
https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/05/24/strategy-letter-ii-chicken-and-egg-problems/
Linux can at least break stuff now and then, however breaking an entire set of systems would never fly, unless you are targeting a specific new platform (like ARM64 embedded with single purpose computers). Then just do whatever you want.
On the desktop, you have to do whatever the users want.
Key thing you said is “whatever the user want”
Users want to run 32 programs. Ubuntu wants those in containers. If you read on security and the 2038 problem this need to happen. User installs steam native or installs steam by flatpak then installs a game and runs it what the different for the user. Both case the users can have run 32 bit application on current versions. One is inside a container and one not.
Application in container it would be useful if this was done by the application developer so they can declare what of the host they in fact need access to.
There are always points when a major breakage in development process is required. We are are inside 20 years of one of those points. Please remember valve is still selling to end users 30 year games. So technically we are 10 years too late starting fixing this problem once you consider how long legacy binary hang around for..
The 2038 problem doesn’t depend on 64bit architecture, just 64bit time. We already have that. And you cannot containerize client side video drivers they need to be in sync with the server side video drivers, so with the distro controlling the kernel and the drivers, they need to provide the libraries interfacing with those as well. Containers just can’t do it…
Microsoft couldn’t escape gaming capability because gaming is a revenue stream for them, and more than that in their grand scheme. Can Ubuntu say the same? No, and there’s no way to justify comparing the two in this way. It simply doesn’t make sense.
Also, “On the desktop, you have to do whatever the users want” depends greatly on what users you’re talking about. There has been countless times where unwanted things have been forced upon users and shoved down their throats.
“Key thing you said is “whatever the user want”
Users want to run 32 programs. Ubuntu wants those in containers. If you read on security and the 2038 problem this need to happen.”
Bullshit. How many of these END-OF-THE-WORLD claims will losers like you will continue run around making?
Didn’t you security clowns actually *LEARN* anything from your Y2K crapola and other fisacos?
A lot of good people did a lot of good work so that Y2K wasn’t a thing. It’s not crapola.
“A lot of good people did a lot of good work so that Y2K wasn’t a thing. It’s not crapola.”
You people were flat out *WRONG* about how Y2K was going to affect embedded devices along with computers in general use. Airplanes didn’t fall out of the sky. Unpatched PC’s around the world didn’t come to a screaming halt. DOS 6.22 didn’t roll over and die like you morons said it would if Y2K “solutions” weren’t installed.
A retarded clown that has no clue calling anyone else a clown. That’s rich. The only crapola is coming out of your mouth and you’re the loser. Probably a Trump supporter too.
Steam, complete and utter fail. I knew gamers were stupid but I didn’t expect them to be this moronically stupid.