Canonical to end 32-bit installation options with Ubuntu 17.10 Linux

Polls suggest it's no longer widely used

Ubuntu, arguably the most popular (or, at least, widely used) desktop distribution of Linux, is to drop support for 32-bit installations in favour of 64-bit - some 14 years after the introduction of the AMD64 instruction set.

Starting with the upcoming release of Ubuntu 17.10, which is due out next month, Ubuntu will be concentrating putting into action a request from Canonical's Dimitri John Ledkov, reports OMG Ubuntu.

"Please action the below and remove Ubuntu Desktop i386 daily-live images from the release manifest for Beta and Final milestones of 17.10 and therefore do not ship ubuntu-desktop-i386.iso artifact for 17.10," he writes.

"There is no longer any effective QA or testing of the desktop product on actual i386 hardware (explicitly non x86_64 CPUs)."

The decision is a sign of the times. Although 64-bit processors have been the norm for the better part of a decade, you don't have to look back too far in PC history to see 64-bit machines suffering from lack of driver support and so being preloaded with 32-bit operating systems, restricting their potential.

This doesn't mean the complete end of the line for venerable i386 (x86) Ubuntu, but rather that if you really want to use it will probably require some workarounds in future, or shifting to an alternative distribution.

For a start, if you're running an older version of Ubuntu in 32-bit, there's nothing to see here - upgrade as normal.

Additionally, offshoot flavours like Xubuntu, Ubuntu MATE and Ubuntu Budgie aren't affected by this decision - although they're based on Ubuntu, they're not Canonical, in the biblical sense, so they can offer what they like.

Last year, an OMG Ubuntu poll showed that only eight per cent of respondents actually used the 32-bit version of Ubuntu (not including flavours), so it's not entirely surprising that it's heading for the scrapheap, especially with the cost-cutting at Canonical.

The Canonical website has already taken down download links for live CDs in 32-bit, across desktop, server or cloud deployment. There is, of course, the repository of older versions.