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Ubuntu To Stop Offering 32-Bit ISO Images, Joining Many Other Linux Distros (bleepingcomputer.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Canonical engineer Dimitri John Ledkov announced on Wednesday that Ubuntu does not plan to offer 32-bit ISO installation images for its new OS version starting with the next release — Ubuntu 17.10 (Artful Aardvark) scheduled for release on October 19. The decision comes after month-long discussions on the dwindling market share of 32-bit architectures. Ledkov made it clear that Canonical does not plan to stop support for 32-bit architectures. The Ubuntu team plans to continue to offer security updates and bug fixes, but they won't be offering new ISO images. Lubuntu and Xubuntu, which are Ubuntu offshoots created to run on older computers, will most likely continue to provide 32-bit ISO images, as this is their bread and butter. Manjaro, Tails, and Arch Linux announced similar decisions. Even Google dropped support for Chrome on 32-bit Linux platforms, way back in 2015, predicting the overall trend.
is it 2032 already?
The contents of this message have been doubly encrypted by ROT13
Many people run Ubuntu Server on embedded devices. And Old Wyse terminal server makes a wonderful Cacti and Icinga box. (No good having monitoring inside a VM when the VM server fails...) Perfect for Pi-Hole. A nice syslog server you can drop at a client when needed. And Ubuntu Server is the only distribution you can install totally for free and then add support a-la-carte later. And yes, I have added an expensive support contract to a $10 used Wyse box for a client.
Are there really many 32bit systems being used in general purpose (workstation or similar) settings? I tend to come across 32bit boxes most often now as either embedded systems, mini servers (in low-demand applications), or various novelty / nostalgia applications. All of these could probably be better suited with a more specialized OS than Ubuntu that aims for the general populace. While it can make support a little more tricky (particularly if all your 64bit systems are Ubuntu) it is probably worth the effort. to switch.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
For those arguing that there are still uses for 32bit machines, I gotta wonder: Is the cost of upgrading to something tiny, modern, and 64bit more or less expensive than running 32bit on old hardware if you include the cost of power?
something tiny, modern, and 64bit
Sometimes modern isn't tiny.
The first round of netbooks, such as the Eee PC 900, were 9" laptops with a 32-bit Celeron processor. The second round of 9" and 10" netbooks used a 64-bit-capable Atom processor, but many shipped with 1 GB of RAM and can't be upgraded past 2 GB. At RAM sizes of 1 GB or less, pointer size increase becomes substantial, and "x32" (x86-64 with 32-bit pointers) never drew enough of a following to come close to displacing i386. (Xubuntu will still be around to support 1 GB PCs, and 64-bit Xubuntu appears to run OK on 2 GB.) A new netbook in 2017 won't be especially "tiny", as 11.6" appears to be the minimum screen size nowadays.
No, you are wrong. If you want performance AND you want 32-bit pointers you can use https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Then you get the benefit of 16 64 bit GPRs, PC-relative addressing and other features that INCREASE performance. There is no good reason to run a 64-bit x86 OS in 32 bit mode.
64-bit is superb for desktop, being able to do various hobbies with less disk thrashing(and don't bring out that old NA geek chestnut about non-geek users just needing a browser, it's not true at all).
Look at all the non-computer geeks doing video and graphics as hobbies. Live streaming with live greenscreens and effects. Or playing games and watching movies at the same time etc etc. All things that nowadays can become almost impossible on a 32-bit system. The combination of being able to use more than 4GiB of RAM efficiently, and more general purpose registers does a lot for many non-geeks for whom the computer is just a tool for hobbies and entertainment.
Windows Me (Millennium Edition) came out in late 2000, when PCs were shipping with Pentium III processors and 128 MB of PC133 RAM upgradable to 512 MB. The AMD64 spec was first published around that time, but the first 64-bit Opteron CPU didn't ship until August 2003.
A Commodore 64/128 computer won't run Linux, but it will run LUnix.