Canonical Survey to Drop 32-bit Support, Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 64-bit only?

[Ink]

Quoted from Neowin

"Ubuntu 18.04 LTS could be the first release to ship without a 32-bit version if suggestions on an Ubuntu mailing list are acted upon. Dmitri John Ledkov, who suggested dropping i386 support, points out that building i386 (32-bit) images is not free, but “comes at the cost of utilising our build farm, QA and validation time". He questioned whether Canonical could “effectively provide security support on i386”, and drew up a plan on how 32-bit components could be phased out over the course of the next two years.

By 2018, it will have been over two years since several third-party independent software vendors (ISVs) stopped supporting software on 32-bit systems. Some of the software Ledkov cited include Google Chrome, ZFS, and Docker. Aside from ISVs dropping support for 32-bit systems, he also points out all the work that goes into releasing 32-bit images and the extra mirror space and bandwidth they use as reasons to drop the architecture."​

Source: Ubuntu Mailing List via Phoronix

Have an opinion? Take the survey (by Canonical)

When should i386 support end?

 

[jamescv7]

Well I understand the sentiments of Ubuntu, people must go now to the well reliable computer system in order to attain optimize performance even it is a Linux OS.

But do not expect massive migration since large percentage of users rely on old systems thus many alternative Linux derivatives available within old architecture support.

 

[AlphaBeta]

That's a good move since even mobile devices provide 64 bit hardware support for future releases these days. It's time to move on from older hardware. The tech revolution won't wait for anyone.