Two years ago, the developers of the Ubuntu distribution stopped releasing 32-bit builds of the operating system. Now, the decision has been made to discontinue the formation of corresponding packages. The deadline is the autumn release of Ubuntu 19.10. The last LTS branch with support for 32-bit memory addressing will be Ubuntu 18.04. Its free support will last until April 2023, while a paid subscription will extend the support until 2028.
It is noted that all editions of distributions based on Ubuntu will also lose support for the old format. However, in reality, most have already abandoned it. At the same time, the ability to run 32-bit applications in Ubuntu 19.10 and later releases will remain. For this, it is suggested to use a separate environment with Ubuntu 18.04 in a container or a snap package with the corresponding libraries.
Regarding the reasons for discontinuing support for the i386 architecture, security issues are among them. For example, many tools in the Linux kernel, browsers, and various utilities are no longer developed for 32-bit architectures, or this is done with a delay.
Additionally, supporting the outdated architecture requires extra resources and time, while the audience of users on such systems does not exceed 1% of the total number of those who are 'on' Ubuntu. Finally, hardware without support for 64-bit memory addressing has become outdated and is no longer in use. Most PCs and laptops have long been equipped with 64-bit processors, so there should be no issues with the transition. At least, that's the assumption.
Source: 3dnews.ru
