Ubuntu will no longer be producing a desktop i386 ISO beginning with the soon-to-be-released Ubuntu 17.10.

Dimitri John Ledkov of Canonical has conveyed to the Ubuntu release team to remove the Ubuntu Desktop i386 daily builds, beta, and final. There will no longer be any "ubuntu-desktop-i386.iso" produced. There is no longer any effective QA or testing being done on the Ubuntu i386 desktop image on actual 32-bit-only hardware. As well, most x86 systems in the past decade support x86_64, Ubuntu modern doesn't run too well on dated hardware, etc.

While the 32-bit Ubuntu desktop image is being dropped, the 32-bit package archive will remain along with the 32-bit net installer image, the mini.iso image, and other artifacts of Ubuntu's 32-bit support. As such, it will be possible for existing Ubuntu 32-bit users to upgrade to 17.10 via the package upgrade process and it will also be possible to install 32-bit packages on Ubuntu 64-bit, such as for Steam Linux gaming.

Ledkov communicated this action a few minutes ago on ubuntu-release.