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Nothing is stopping apps from shipping with 32 bit libraries if they need them. This isn't like what happened with ARM where processors dropped support for 32 b

Nothing is stopping apps from shipping with 32 bit libraries if they need them. This isn't like what happened with ARM where processors dropped support for 32 bit code.

diffeomorphism 1y ago
Obvious stoppers: man power, expertise, incompatibilities,...
- charcircuit 1y ago
  Most 32 bit dependencies would not need to be upgraded. The only one I can think of off the top of my head is for the graphics driver.
  - cluckindan 1y ago
    Which is typically closed source, right?
    - piperswe 1y ago
      Only for NVIDIA cards, which are the worst option for a Linux system anyways
- dismalaf 1y ago
  That's a them problem...
holowoodman 1y ago
Actually, there are some things. libGL/libVK for OpenGL and Vulkan support is a big one, you need that to be fitting the exact version of your kernel Nvidia driver if you are using Nvidia cards. Of course all other vendors play nice with Open Source and Mesa libs, but especially for gaming, a lot of people unfortunately still buy Nvidia. Games cannot just ship their own 32bit libGL for reasons of license and versioning.
- BearOso 1y ago
  This wouldn't work well with Mesa, either. On Windows, this is like telling game developers that they need to ship all the graphics drivers for their games. Let's skip the hassle for the developers' side. For the users, not only would that be a situation where you could no longer update your own drivers to fix problems, it would be a compatibility nightmare and likely introduce new problems because of interactions with the system drivers and kernel level.
qalmakka 1y ago
That's always a good choice but 1. They need to also keep the multi arch support enabled in their kernels 2. Apps such as games and steam depend on Mesa, and you don't really want to ship Mesa A good compromise would be for Valve to support Flatpak for Steam, but if they can't be bothered to build a 64 bit Steam they sure don't want to bother with that

Nothing is stopping apps from shipping with 32 bit libraries if they need them. This isn't like what happened with ARM where processors dropped support for 32 bit code.

diffeomorphism 1y ago

Obvious stoppers: man power, expertise, incompatibilities,...

charcircuit 1y ago
Most 32 bit dependencies would not need to be upgraded. The only one I can think of off the top of my head is for the graphics driver.
- cluckindan 1y ago
  Which is typically closed source, right?
  - piperswe 1y ago
    Only for NVIDIA cards, which are the worst option for a Linux system anyways
dismalaf 1y ago
That's a them problem...

holowoodman 1y ago

Actually, there are some things. libGL/libVK for OpenGL and Vulkan support is a big one, you need that to be fitting the exact version of your kernel Nvidia driver if you are using Nvidia cards. Of course all other vendors play nice with Open Source and Mesa libs, but especially for gaming, a lot of people unfortunately still buy Nvidia. Games cannot just ship their own 32bit libGL for reasons of license and versioning.

BearOso 1y ago
This wouldn't work well with Mesa, either. On Windows, this is like telling game developers that they need to ship all the graphics drivers for their games. Let's skip the hassle for the developers' side. For the users, not only would that be a situation where you could no longer update your own drivers to fix problems, it would be a compatibility nightmare and likely introduce new problems because of interactions with the system drivers and kernel level.

qalmakka 1y ago

That's always a good choice but 1. They need to also keep the multi arch support enabled in their kernels 2. Apps such as games and steam depend on Mesa, and you don't really want to ship Mesa A good compromise would be for Valve to support Flatpak for Steam, but if they can't be bothered to build a 64 bit Steam they sure don't want to bother with that