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If the hardware, the operating systems, and the software ecosystem around these products kept on supporting 32-bit the products never had any critical incetive

If the hardware, the operating systems, and the software ecosystem around these products kept on supporting 32-bit the products never had any critical incetive to transition. Perhpas now they will have that, or other pieces of software will come and fill the void. I'm still pretty bummed about what this will mean for WINE though, it will mean a lot more work for those devs – or a serious reduction in the amount of software that will work with it.

rock_artist 7y ago
> I'm still pretty bummed about what this will mean for WINE though why? all Intel chips currently supports 32bit ISA. You can still have VMs to run 32bit. also IIRC, Wine is X-Window? so you can even attach through SSH-X to it with simple Docker container.
- qwerty456127 7y ago
  > Wine is X-Window? so you can even attach through SSH-X to it Absolutely true. I once had to set a client-server Windows-based CRM in a small company. The server had a native Linux version, the client app was windows-only. Client machines ran Windows. Users also wanted to work from home. For some reason (some kind of connection glitches or whatever, I can't remember already) I've chosen to install Xfree on the Ubuntu server (one of command-line-managed VirtualBox VMs on another Ubuntu server actually), set-up the app for direct client-server connection, let users connect to the Linux box over OpenVPN and run the Win32 app with Wine over SSH on their Windows machines :-) I've fell in love with the X as I have managed to set this up (quite easily, BTW). I certainly don't want Linux to loose such a beautiful ability as it switches to Wayland (I don't worry much about Wine though, all the distributions but Ubuntu keep shipping multiarch libs and it works just fine but I won't update my Mac as it has just 128 GiBs SSD and I have no disk space to spare for a Windows VM).
bangonkeyboard 7y ago
This idea that vendors should seek to actively break working software simply because it's "old" is repellent to me. I use several 32-bit apps and components regularly because they continue to function better than the alternatives. Many are unlikely to ever be rewritten or replaced because the developers, ecosystems, and business models that made them possible are today either gone or moribund.
- Bahamut 7y ago
  And this is how we end up with long lifetimes for software like Internet Explorer, which ends up holding back most people's experience with the web, especially mobile, because a lot of extra scripts/code has to be shipped to maintain compatibility (polyfills, newer features can't be used and thus must be compiled around, etc.), which directly impacts the value being able to be delivered to end users costing more or having less time being able to be allocated to doing so. More people have to suffer usually if software ends up long lived without being pushed to upgrade when there are newer technologies that improve the experience - it's a heavy price of others you're asking for a lot of times when choices have to be made between compatibility and improvements that often get discounted unreasonably.
  - bangonkeyboard 7y ago
    > More people have to suffer usually if software ends up long lived without being pushed to upgrade when there are newer technologies that improve the experience - it's a heavy price of others you're asking for a lot of times when choices have to be made between compatibility and improvements that often get discounted unreasonably. I look at all of the Mac software I've lost and will lose to upgrades over the years, including the offline-only parts of my workflow that held back only myself, and weigh them against this bright new future of low-effort blown-up tablet apps on my desktop that they were sacrificed for. A heavy price certainly has been paid here.
  - alacombe 7y ago
    Just think of all the software infrastructure you rely on is probably running COBOL or very, very old tech, you really don't want those to be re-written today. Also, the industry (think CNC controllers) relies on tried and true interfaces that are just unavailable today (USB is utter rubbish in high electrical noise environment) and there is barely replacement either. Not to mention the cost of training blue-collars operators... Real world is not the web cocoon, even there, switching front-end every 2 years is not acceptable. disclamer: I know that for a fact as I'm in the process of replacing a CNC control system with modern parts, trust me it's HARD.
  - 7y ago

rock_artist 7y ago

> I'm still pretty bummed about what this will mean for WINE though why? all Intel chips currently supports 32bit ISA. You can still have VMs to run 32bit. also IIRC, Wine is X-Window? so you can even attach through SSH-X to it with simple Docker container.

qwerty456127 7y ago
> Wine is X-Window? so you can even attach through SSH-X to it Absolutely true. I once had to set a client-server Windows-based CRM in a small company. The server had a native Linux version, the client app was windows-only. Client machines ran Windows. Users also wanted to work from home. For some reason (some kind of connection glitches or whatever, I can't remember already) I've chosen to install Xfree on the Ubuntu server (one of command-line-managed VirtualBox VMs on another Ubuntu server actually), set-up the app for direct client-server connection, let users connect to the Linux box over OpenVPN and run the Win32 app with Wine over SSH on their Windows machines :-) I've fell in love with the X as I have managed to set this up (quite easily, BTW). I certainly don't want Linux to loose such a beautiful ability as it switches to Wayland (I don't worry much about Wine though, all the distributions but Ubuntu keep shipping multiarch libs and it works just fine but I won't update my Mac as it has just 128 GiBs SSD and I have no disk space to spare for a Windows VM).

bangonkeyboard 7y ago

This idea that vendors should seek to actively break working software simply because it's "old" is repellent to me. I use several 32-bit apps and components regularly because they continue to function better than the alternatives. Many are unlikely to ever be rewritten or replaced because the developers, ecosystems, and business models that made them possible are today either gone or moribund.

Bahamut 7y ago
And this is how we end up with long lifetimes for software like Internet Explorer, which ends up holding back most people's experience with the web, especially mobile, because a lot of extra scripts/code has to be shipped to maintain compatibility (polyfills, newer features can't be used and thus must be compiled around, etc.), which directly impacts the value being able to be delivered to end users costing more or having less time being able to be allocated to doing so. More people have to suffer usually if software ends up long lived without being pushed to upgrade when there are newer technologies that improve the experience - it's a heavy price of others you're asking for a lot of times when choices have to be made between compatibility and improvements that often get discounted unreasonably.
- bangonkeyboard 7y ago
  > More people have to suffer usually if software ends up long lived without being pushed to upgrade when there are newer technologies that improve the experience - it's a heavy price of others you're asking for a lot of times when choices have to be made between compatibility and improvements that often get discounted unreasonably. I look at all of the Mac software I've lost and will lose to upgrades over the years, including the offline-only parts of my workflow that held back only myself, and weigh them against this bright new future of low-effort blown-up tablet apps on my desktop that they were sacrificed for. A heavy price certainly has been paid here.
- alacombe 7y ago
  Just think of all the software infrastructure you rely on is probably running COBOL or very, very old tech, you really don't want those to be re-written today. Also, the industry (think CNC controllers) relies on tried and true interfaces that are just unavailable today (USB is utter rubbish in high electrical noise environment) and there is barely replacement either. Not to mention the cost of training blue-collars operators... Real world is not the web cocoon, even there, switching front-end every 2 years is not acceptable. disclamer: I know that for a fact as I'm in the process of replacing a CNC control system with modern parts, trust me it's HARD.
- 7y ago