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Steam and Linux gaming is safe: Fedora will not drop 32-bit support after all — dev says proposal was 'not some conspiracy to break the gaming use case'
Quoting: Steam and Linux gaming is safe: Fedora will not drop 32-bit support after all — dev says proposal was 'not some conspiracy to break the gaming use case' —
The developers behind the Fedora Linux distribution have officially withdrawn their proposal to drop 32-bit support from the OS after severe backlash from the community. Discovered by GamingOnLinux, Fabio Valentini, a member of the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee, clarified in a discussion thread that 32-bit removal from Fedora 44 was "just the earliest 'reasonable' target" and wasn't a plan he fully expected to go through.
The programmer was disappointed by the sheer number of commenters responding harshly to the change, saying, "I was expecting a lot of feedback on this one, but not hundreds of people shouting 'DON’T DO THIS, WHY DON’T YOU CARE ABOUT YOUR USERS, I WILL SWITCH DISTROS IMMEDIATELY levels of feedback."
The backlash stemmed from reports that the change could potentially undermine support for gaming service Steam. The developer said the proposal to eliminate 32-bit support was "...not some conspiracy to break the 'gaming use case'." Valentini clarified that the proposal aimed to address specific technical issues that package maintainers and release engineers encounter with Fedora.
Update
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Linux Community Wins as Fedora Cancels 32-Bit Removal Plan
Fedora's 32-bit removal plan has been dropped due to intense backlash from the community.
Linux Magazine:
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Fedora Continues 32-Bit Support » Linux Magazine
Back in June, the Fedora team announced it was going to ditch support for 32-bit architecture starting with Fedora 44. That wasn't just a strike against 32-bit hardware but also a strike against any 32-bit applications remaining in the wild.
In a discussion thread on the Fedora Project website, it was made clear that the change would break the FEX rootfs that has been in production since Fedora 42, which could have a direct impact on Linux gaming. There was also concern for Podman/Docker/Toolbox containers that use 32-bit (or 64-bit multilib) operating systems to run older native apps.
Needless to say, the Fedora community didn't respond well to the announcement, so the Fedora team decided to back off on its decision.
In the withdrawal of the proposal, Fabio Valentini (a member of the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee) stated, "It is clear that the Fedora 44 target for this Change was too early. To some degree, I expected this to be the case, and was prepared to move the proposed implementation of the Change to a later release." Valentini continues, "Fedora 44 was just the earliest 'reasonable' target. However, I think this also shows an inherent conflict in the current Changes process -- if a big Change (like this one) is submitted quite early (out of caution!), that also front-loads the discussion and decision process instead of giving things more time."