It's official: there will be no more 32-bit Ubuntu versions

Many developers have long appreciated the ability to drop the 32bits or they have already decided to take the step. If memory serves me correctly, Xubuntu recently said that it would no longer release any more versions that support the i386 architecture, which was bad news for those with a team with limited resources as it is one of the light versions of the Ubuntu family. Today, a few minutes ago, Canonical announced that Xubuntu will not be the only one: Eoan Ermine will be the first version that will be available only for 64bits.

The person in charge of giving us the news and, probably, of opening the umbrellas against criticism has been Steve Langasek. In his informative note he tells us about the internal debates they have had with regard to continuing to develop for an architecture that today is (or should be) a minority, which makes them double their efforts. They already said in February that they would make the decision in mid-2019 and that moment has already come. And the decision is made: if you have an old computer and / or limited resources and you want to be up to date, you should choose an operating system that is not from the official Ubuntu family.

Eoan Ermine will be the first to completely abandon 32-bit support

Mid 2019 has already arrived. The Ubuntu engineering team has gone over the facts before us and we have decided that we should not continue dragging i386 as an architecture. As a result, i386 will no longer be included as an architecture in the 19.10 release and we will soon begin the process of disabling it for Eoan series through the Ubuntu infrastructure.

Langasek says that dropping 32bits it does not mean that we cannot use applications developed for that architecture. What you cannot do is use 64-bit applications on i386 computers / systems, but the opposite can be done.

At first we are giving bad news. On the bright side, abandoning the i386 architecture will make developers can spend more time focused on polishing 64-bit images, which should translate into higher quality systems. Probably, as the years go by, we will rejoice in the decision they have made and announced today.