Google To Drop Chrome Support For 32-bit Linux

prisoninmate writes: Google announces that its Google Chrome web browser will no longer be available for 32-bit hardware platforms. Additionally, Google Chrome will no longer be supported on the Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) and Debian GNU/Linux 7 (Wheezy) operating systems. Users are urged to update to the Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) release and Debian GNU/Linux 8 (Jessie) respectively. Google will continue to support the 32-bit build configurations for those who want to build the open-source Chromium web browser on various Linux kernel-based operating systems. Reader SmartAboutThings writes, on a similar note, that: Microsoft is tolling the death knell for Internet Explorer with an announcement that it will end support for all older versions next year. Microsoft says that all versions older than the latest one will no longer be supported starting Jan. 12, 2016. After this date, Microsoft will no longer provide security updates or technical support for older Internet Explorer versions. Furthermore, Internet Explorer 11 will be the last version of Internet Explorer as Microsoft shifts its focus on its next web browser, Microsoft Edge.

Comments

Re:The Source?

[Anonymous Coward]

It means that they just won't bother to compile a 32-bit build of the closed-source Chrome.

Re:The Source?

[selectspec]

The chromium open source tar ball will continue to be updated and support 32-bit x86 and ARM for at least the next 5 years.

The proprietary Chrome binaries which include features listed below will not longer be updated after March 2016:

- AAC, H.264, and MP3 Support
- Adobe Flash (PPAPI)
- Google Update

https://groups.google.com/a/ch...

Re:Politically incorrect fact

[prefec2]

And? Is Chrome supported on Win10 for 32 bit? Ah nope, as the summary states, Google stops delivering 32bit versions of Chrome for all OS. On a side note: Linuxes come with Firefox which works perfectly on 32bit hardware.

Alternative

[DrYak]

For the record...

Chrome binaries which include features listed below will not longer be updated after March 2016:
- AAC, H.264, and MP3 Support

It's possible to leverage ffmpeg to give additional codecs support to chromium.
AFAIK Packman's and OpenSUSE's build of chromium use this.

- Adobe Flash (PPAPI)

To be more precise, it's the *bundling of flash* which is unavailable with chormium.
Support for PPAPI can be compiled in Chromium, and if a suitable separate binary is provided, you get working flash version 19.
(Again, Packman's and OpenSUSE's build is done so)

For that matters, it's the same situation with Firefox: there's a plugin called "freshplayer" that enables support for PPAPI plugins in Firefox (it's basically a NSAPI to PPAPI wrapper).
Again with a a suitable binary provided, you get working flash verison 19 (instead of version 11 which was the last version that flash provided for NSAPI).
Though you don't get all the advantage of Google's sandboxing model.
It's povided in OpenSUSE and Packman.

(I don't have experience with Ubuntu, but I strongly suspect that they do the same. Or in any other way, it should definitely be available in some PPA)