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Why are they dropping i386? Surely 32 bit Ubuntu is still very much in demand in developing Countries or for people wanting to get old machines running with "ok

by bArray 7y ago

Why are they dropping i386? Surely 32 bit Ubuntu is still very much in demand in developing Countries or for people wanting to get old machines running with "okay" hardware? I can still get my IBM T22 to load a lightweight browser and navigate the internet. The kernel still supports i386 and surely it's not that much effort to make sure Gnome and the various packages compile for it? They still plan to support 32 bit ARM systems?

ashleyn 7y ago
Ubuntu isn't really intended for legacy systems.
- bArray 7y ago
  No, but I imagine this decision will have implications for lighter derivatives such as Lubuntu.
  - zamalek 7y ago
    I assume such distros have a CI infrastructure set up? If they are building from source, they should be able to keep i386 ticking over (sans anything that has a hard requirement on amd64, e.g. JITters).
    - bArray 7y ago
      I believe Lubuntu has the same kernel as Ubuntu [1], as far as I'm aware Lubuntu is literally just Ubuntu bundled with LXDE instead of Gnome. I imagine Ubuntu's decision to kill the i386 build will also trickle down to derivatives such as Lubuntu. [1] https://askubuntu.com/a/90918/789899 https://askubuntu.com/a/90918/789899
sandGorgon 7y ago
Actually no. We get a ton of amd laptops and some arm too. It's been years since I saw a 32 bit laptop anywhere in Asia.
Sohcahtoa82 7y ago
> Surely 32 bit Ubuntu is still very much in demand in developing Countries or for people wanting to get old machines running with "okay" hardware? Every mainstream desktop CPU since late 2005 has had support for 64-bit, and mobile CPUs since 2008. If you're still running pre-2005 hardware, is the latest version of Ubuntu even really running that well at all? Besides, they can continue to use 19.04 or 18.04 LTS. It's not like discontinuing support means existing installs are going to break.
- bArray 7y ago
  > If you're still running pre-2005 hardware, is the latest > version of Ubuntu even really running that well at all? Ubuntu server and Lubuntu are still very agreeable for older hardware. > Besides, they can continue to use 19.04 or 18.04 LTS. It's > not like discontinuing support means existing installs are > going to break. After just a few versions of Ubuntu it becomes harder to find archive repositories, especially if you want to do anything like cross-compiling. It basically is a death sentence.

by bArray 7y ago

ashleyn 7y ago

Ubuntu isn't really intended for legacy systems.

bArray 7y ago
No, but I imagine this decision will have implications for lighter derivatives such as Lubuntu.
- zamalek 7y ago
  I assume such distros have a CI infrastructure set up? If they are building from source, they should be able to keep i386 ticking over (sans anything that has a hard requirement on amd64, e.g. JITters).
  - bArray 7y ago
    I believe Lubuntu has the same kernel as Ubuntu [1], as far as I'm aware Lubuntu is literally just Ubuntu bundled with LXDE instead of Gnome. I imagine Ubuntu's decision to kill the i386 build will also trickle down to derivatives such as Lubuntu. [1] https://askubuntu.com/a/90918/789899 https://askubuntu.com/a/90918/789899

sandGorgon 7y ago

Actually no. We get a ton of amd laptops and some arm too. It's been years since I saw a 32 bit laptop anywhere in Asia.

Sohcahtoa82 7y ago

> Surely 32 bit Ubuntu is still very much in demand in developing Countries or for people wanting to get old machines running with "okay" hardware? Every mainstream desktop CPU since late 2005 has had support for 64-bit, and mobile CPUs since 2008. If you're still running pre-2005 hardware, is the latest version of Ubuntu even really running that well at all? Besides, they can continue to use 19.04 or 18.04 LTS. It's not like discontinuing support means existing installs are going to break.

bArray 7y ago
> If you're still running pre-2005 hardware, is the latest > version of Ubuntu even really running that well at all? Ubuntu server and Lubuntu are still very agreeable for older hardware. > Besides, they can continue to use 19.04 or 18.04 LTS. It's > not like discontinuing support means existing installs are > going to break. After just a few versions of Ubuntu it becomes harder to find archive repositories, especially if you want to do anything like cross-compiling. It basically is a death sentence.