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Bazzite founder might shutdown whole project if Fedora drops support for 32 bit packages (lemmy.ml)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/linux_gaming@lemmy.world
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https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/f44-change-proposal-drop-i686-support-system-wide/156324/93

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[–] 31 points 1 year ago (16 children)

Did he elaborate on why? Is it really that integral to have 32bit tools?

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  • [–] 88 points 1 year ago (10 children)

    Afaik Steam still heavily relies on 32-Bit. And bazzite's only purpose is Steam.

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  • [–] 49 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    The comments in the thread don't mention Steam itself, but it's that running all the 32 bit games will become a problem. Steam's flatpak packages the 32 bit packages so that can get around this change, but the flatpak is not official and does not support all features. Steam themselves only provide the RPM for Fedora.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    What features are missing on flatpak version? I am playing games that way without any issues...

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    I'm no expert, and I'm running Bazzite (and previously Nobara), both of which have the RPM installed by default so I don't think I've ever used the Steam Flatpak. But things mentioned in the thread are VR and Gamescope.

    I do wonder if any issues are related to permission restrictions that could be resolved editing permissions with Flatseal, but I don't know enough about the issues.

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  • [–] 16 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    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

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    There are others like it and some better for those who are both non-technical and non-gamers. What you’re looking for is “immutable distro” https://itsfoss.com/immutable-linux-distros/ which is a distro of Linux that is very user friendly, much like Windows, in not allowing major changes to the OS. SteamOS is this as well.

    It makes setup and updates much easier to manage and easier for users to use because it just works most of the time.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago

    I tried fedora kinoite and the experience is much worse than bazzite. The nvidia drivers ware a pain to install on kinote but bazzite just provides an image with them already configured.

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  • [–] 24 points 1 year ago* (4 children)

    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).
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  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    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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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    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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