Wine Developers Appear Quite Apprehensive About Ubuntu's Plans To Drop 32-Bit Support

[the_scx]

Does it have a significant performance hit, compared to native 32-bit / WoW64 Wine case? Gaming use case is very demanding, and performance degradation is not really an acceptable option, when Wine itself already introduces an overhead in comparison with regular Windows.

Do not pay attention to him, it's just a troll.
In other posts he recommended Virgl to gamers. He also claimed that Huawei could develop a new RISC-V SoC for hi-end smartphones in just two months. What is more, he suggested that the open hardware Vulkan accelerator would be used here.

[the_scx]

But that isn't the case on any other platform. When you need to use extra libraries, you bundle them yourself on other platforms. The difference is that on LIiux, you're expecting the distribution to be a development platform even before you expect it to be an operating system.

Sorry, but essential libraries are provided by every sane platform. Linux is an exception here and has a problem with this.

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-Desktop-Issues-2018

https://gitlab.com/probono/platformissues

See also:

https://www.phoronix.com/forums/forum/phoronix/latest-phoronix-articles/1107050-ubuntu-19-10-to-drop-32-bit-x86-packages?p=1107453#post1107453

The pure minimum of what should be supported is a standard library (glibc) and an userspace GPU drivers (OpenGL, Vulkan, etc.).

[the_scx]

32-bit is only required by a very small minority of desktop users, namely those that run proprietary games or other legacy 32-bit x86 stuff.

Should be: 32-bit is required by a majority of desktop users, mainly those that run proprietary games and/or Windows software through WINE.

In fact, I think the Ubuntu decision to drop 32-bit x86 will be a big step towards deterring from using 32-bit for current and future software builds, benefiting all Linux users not just Ubuntu ones. The last time such a thing happened on a major scale was when Apple refused to support Flash on iOS.

If this happens, there is a high probability that it will lead to drop Linux support by GOG.

Eh, such as releasing a 64-bit version of Steam I guess?

It won't change anything. They have provided 64-bit SDK and Steam Runtime for years! They even recommended to support 64-bit for a long time. However, 32-bit libs are still required to support old games and Proton.

[the_scx]

Uhh, there's a difference between preserving history and requiring perfect backwards compatibility. I don't know where you got this notion that Canonical somehow has the power to unilaterally render every x86 program inoperable, but legacy programs will continue to run on legacy systems. The same thing happened when x64 came along and broke compatibility with 16 bit programs, yet nobody bemoans that all 16 bit programs are lost to history.

If WINE, DXVK, PlayOnLinux/Phoenicis and Lutris are legacy software, then Linux should be considered as an ancient system. We should drop it, and switch to a modern one, like Fuchsia or Redox.

[Speedator]

As said in the mailing list and is not that clear in the article: it is not just some legacy and and not ported software. You often need native libs in wine and that is a problem because most stuff in winetricks is just 32 bit. So you need the 32 bit version, even 64 bit is available. That is probably solvable. But even 64 bit software often pickabacks 32 bit parts. Almost every installer for 64 bit software is 32 bit to handle 32 bit windows. https://www.winehq.org/pipermail/win...ne/147874.html

So 64 bit wine packages really doesn't matter even for (almost) pure 64 bit software.

[oiaohm]

Do not pay attention to him, it's just a troll.
In other posts he recommended Virgl to gamers. He also claimed that Huawei could develop a new RISC-V SoC for hi-end smartphones in just two months. What is more, he suggested that the open hardware Vulkan accelerator would be used here.

Did you not read the post from the developer of the vulkan accelerator who said that my number were not out on what could be done if Huawei decide to.

Really stop and go and try out hangover project. Maybe then you might have a clue on this topic. Wine is a lot of work if 32 bit arch libraries are gone. But its not a impossible problem.

[Cattus_D]

wine is a mistake, it makes people rely on buggy solutions rather than unite and offer sane environment for apps/games to prosper.

Not exactly. Wine fulfills a very real need. To give you an example: I use Wine to run specialised dictionaries which have no Linux equivalent, and for which no x64 solution will ever be available as the vendors in question now offer expensive 'subscriptions' to their web services.

[blacknova]

Backward compatibility is the boat which floats both Windows and x86 arch in general. I don't think I need to remind of shit-storm at time of migration from XP to Vista when NTVDM have been removed?

[birdie]

the people who refuse to drop 32bit support and move forward deserve to be left in the past with other dead projects

wine is a mistake, it makes people rely on buggy solutions rather than unite and offer sane environment for apps/games to prosper

macOS dropped 32bit LONG time ago, and it is doing MUCH MUCH MUCH better than what you are trying to achieve with linux OS's aka stay in the 80's with your anti UX/UI preferences

You are a mistake. You have the insolence to tell people what they can and cannot use and with that you can go fück yourself. As well as all the people who've liked your post.

Your the cancer of open source. Instead of trying to cater open source for as many people as possible you actually insist on makin open source an elite club for the selected.

Really go fück yourself.

[Monolith]

Not exactly. Wine fulfills a very real need. To give you an example: I use Wine to run specialised dictionaries which have no Linux equivalent, and for which no x64 solution will ever be available as the vendors in question now offer expensive 'subscriptions' to their web services.

Van Dale, amirite