Bazzite founder might shutdown whole project if Fedora drops support for 32 bit packages
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Ugghhh, I just got it set up with arr stack on my media computer. Can someone more familiar with the trajectory of the project tell me the odds of this actually happening? Or is it more of a PR move to get people's attention on the Fedora project?
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Yes, and from what I understood:
- Steam is still 32bit. Two-thirds of Bazzite's user base use the OS on handhelds requiring Steam's gaming mode front-end. Installing Steam as a flatpak removes the ability to boot into gaming mode, and so alienating two-thirds of Bazzite's user base.
- It will kill support for older games that are still 32bit. Wine's WoW64 isn't ready yet, and even so, building custom Proton for 32bit support (e.g. Including all the 32bit libraries inside of Proton itself) on top of the Proton provided by Valve is going to be very messy.
- OBS requires 32bit packages to capture video data from 32bit games. If 32bit is no longer supported, this'll kill streamers playing older games (OBS is probably the most widely used software by streamers and game recorders).
- It would kill VR on Bazzite, as VR still makes use of 32bit features (I'm not sure why or which ones, but that's what's said).
Oh wow, if steam is still 32 bit, forget the offshoots, fedora itself won't be worth using. I'm on fedora but if I can't run steam, then I'm finding a new distro.
On the flip side, what's the reason they want to drop 32-bit support, given steam depends on it, which they should understand means it's integral to the size of their current userbase?
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Probably a lot of time and work to do so, they've spent a lot of time learning what tweaks Fedora needs.
Why not ride streams coat-tails and switch to arch?
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Ugghhh, I just got it set up with arr stack on my media computer. Can someone more familiar with the trajectory of the project tell me the odds of this actually happening? Or is it more of a PR move to get people's attention on the Fedora project?
Well, no. If it actually happens, Bazzite can’t exist. Valve only releases 32bit of Steam for the official client. If support for 32bit is removed from Fedora, then gamers won’t be able to use Steam on Fedora or its downstream distros.
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Instead of shutting down why not choose another distro base
That would require redoing everything. It would be a massive project, and honestly since there’s already other gaming oriented distros out there, what would be the point? It’s not like Garuda or PopOS is shit.
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As reiterated by the OP, the proposal is just a proposal and was proposed with heaps of lead time probably because they expected it to be controversial.
As also mentioned, heaps of volunteer time is spent maintaining the packages where most are barely used (even for gaming).
However, it does not seem like there is a viable alternative. Many comments say the suggested alternative, WINE's WoW64, does not work for all games.
I can see both sides here. Fedora maintainers says "this is so much work!" and (mostly) gamers saying "But older games will stop working!".
The response from the Bazzite guy does seem overblown to me. I would think the first step is to work out the impact, as I haven't seen anyone quantify what proportion of games are affected and if there are alternatives like emulation.
Older games? What are you talking about? They say in that thread that Valve doesn’t release 64bit versions of Steam. That means any games through Steam using the official client would be unplayable.
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Ah yeah. Would be unfortunate. Bazzite was the least amount of setup i've ever had to do with linux and is the only repo I could recommend to someone non-technical
That makes me sad. Bazzite just refused to install on my new laptop (as did several others, amusingly) so it was back to manjaro for me.
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I used EndeavorOS in the past which was a successor to AntergOS, both arch based, with gui installer and easy nvidia driver setup, they both worked like a charm without any issues (unlike fucking Manjaro).
It's interesting to hear how people's experiences differ so much. I couldn't get endeavor to work on my laptop (absolutely nothing would launch after the install), but manjaro was the definition of 'it just works' for me. I'd love to stop having things break because manjaro holds back updates for a week.
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Oh wow, if steam is still 32 bit, forget the offshoots, fedora itself won't be worth using. I'm on fedora but if I can't run steam, then I'm finding a new distro.
On the flip side, what's the reason they want to drop 32-bit support, given steam depends on it, which they should understand means it's integral to the size of their current userbase?
People just ditching Fedora for another distro is exactly what is being warned about on the linked forum thread, should the Fedora team decide to go through with it.
As for the why; the Fedora team says that 32bit libraries are annoying to maintain and that they can cut it out to save on time and resources. They consider 32bit old and no longer relevant.
However, others have said that if 32bit is still being used (also for none-game-related projects) then it's still relevant and should still be maintained. Also that Fedora should develop according to what the user base wants, and not pull a Microsoft/Apple and force want they want on the user base.
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I go with CachyOs
Ik ik the compiler optimizations only give a minor difference and maybe major in latency but am just comfy with it.
I just like how minimal is the distroWhy not just install the CachyOS kernel onto Fedora (like me)? I then deleted the stock kernle and now make sure to use --exclude=kernel* when updating. Works like a charm.
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Why not ride streams coat-tails and switch to arch?
Or Debian. It still supports MIPS64 officially and 68K unofficially. x86 isn't going anywhere for a long time.
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Older games? What are you talking about? They say in that thread that Valve doesn’t release 64bit versions of Steam. That means any games through Steam using the official client would be unplayable.
The flatpak should still work. Though I agree it's a problem.
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Well, no. If it actually happens, Bazzite can’t exist. Valve only releases 32bit of Steam for the official client. If support for 32bit is removed from Fedora, then gamers won’t be able to use Steam on Fedora or its downstream distros.
Just migrate to cachy! It's everything bazzite is but better!
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Red hat is owned by IBM which is a Nazi enabling mega corpo
I mean companies by definition surrender to power for the sake of profit. I don't see how that makes them any better or worse than any other company that functions under our current system
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I mean companies by definition surrender to power for the sake of profit. I don't see how that makes them any better or worse than any other company that functions under our current system
Well then you should consider some reading on the issue.
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When Redhat went Fedora, I learned Debian and Ubuntu. When they decided to flush CentOS, I GTFO even professionally and stayed out of their ancestral distros.
Don't get me wrong, I'm down with change and updating, but they are very focused on making things better/easier for themselves without worries about who they're supposed to be supporting.
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The flatpak should still work. Though I agree it's a problem.
The flatpak has its own issues. Namely, that Steam was never meant to be run like that, so you run into bugs the native version doesn’t have.
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I think I can hear Bringus sobbing somewhere
the return of HoloISO never booting up
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Throwing a tantrum isn't how to get what you want. This is a common behavior in the OSS world from wannabe BDFLs. Linus Torvalds or Guido van Rossum earned that title through merit, not through the simple luck of your side project going viral.
Bazzite is just Fedora Atomic with some extra preinstalled software. If it dies, it'll hurt the community of Linux gamers who picked it for whatever reason, but it won't make Fedora maintain 32 bit packages forever.
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Well, no. If it actually happens, Bazzite can’t exist. Valve only releases 32bit of Steam for the official client. If support for 32bit is removed from Fedora, then gamers won’t be able to use Steam on Fedora or its downstream distros.
Wouldn't the Steam Flatpak still work?
