The demise of the 32-bit (i686) architecture has been slow but well-known within the Linux ecosystem, as popular distributions have stopped providing 32-bit kernel packages, installer ISOs, and other related packages.
For Fedora, this started with the Fedora 31 release, where many 32-bit components were shed in favor of focusing development and support on 64-bit architectures and improving multilib compatibility.
Now, it looks like Fedora is ready to take the next major step when it comes to 32-bit support.
The End of 32-bit Support: What’s Proposed?
Starting with Fedora 44, support for the 32-bit architecture is planned to be discontinued in a two-step process where the first step involves removing 32-bit libraries from the 64-bit (x86_64) repositories, a change that can be reversed if any issues arise.
The second step will permanently end the building of any i686 (32-bit) packages, making the discontinuation of 32-bit support final.
For those looking to run 32-bit applications, the developers mention that Wine’s WoW64 configuration will be required. This setup enables 32-bit Windows applications to run on 64-bit-only systems without the need for native 32-bit Linux libraries.
As for the reasoning behind this move, here's an excerpt from the change proposal:
Many projects have already been officially dropping support for building and / or running on 32-bit architectures, requiring either adding back support for this architecture downstream in Fedora, or requiring packaging changes in a significant number of packages to adapt to this dropped support.
By dropping support for the i686 architecture entirely, this additional - and growing - maintenance burden is eliminated.
In the discussion thread for it, many have opposed this move, citing concerns that it could break older games, disrupt Steam, affect OBS game capture, and create problems for downstream distributions like Bazzite.
Fortunately, this is still just a proposal in the feedback-gathering phase. It will only move forward if approved by the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee (FESCo), which seems unlikely given the strong community pushback.
💬 Do you think Fedora will proceed with this? Add your thoughts in the comments below!
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