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View Full Version : Why I think Ubuntu should keep 32 bit a while longer



mjp29
November 12th, 2009, 03:29 AM
I have read threads posted where some people ask why Ubuntu keeps offering a 32 bit install and not just switch to 64 bit completely. I think the people making such posts have newer or the newest computers with dual core processors or the like.

I for one an an example, why I believe it's important to keep the 32 bit available. I actually was using an old G4 Mac which, with os X on it, it is slow in my opinion (it ran faster with os 9.x which was non uninx and pre-Steve Jobs coming back and buying Next and bringing a wonderful revolution to Mac os by converting the old os to a Unix based o.s. [os x]).

Anyways, I could have bought a new Mac (very expensive). I could buy a new PC (400$ if you have monitor, right?). However, my wife's work keeps updating their PC boxes and giving me old boxes like HP Pentium 4's (with 2 gigs ram) and Dell Pentium 4 desktops, etc...

I have been able to put Ubuntu on these older boxes and actually Ubuntu seems to me like it runs much faster on these older boxes than a new box with Windows Vista or a new Mac box with the latest os X.

My mother was using a very old iMac that I had put os x on and it ran painfully slow. I was able to give her one of these free boxes (pentium 4) that my wife's work gave me and put the latest Ubuntu on. She is so pleased now. She simply loves her "new" computer and continually thanks me.

So I think the computers I'm using with Ubuntu are 32 bit (if not my argument is invalid).

I'm attempting to argue that there is still a real need out here to keep a 32 bit version of Ubuntu available. Shucks, I'm getting free computers and using a free operating system and fell that I'm using a computer that's faster than the latest store bought Vista or Mac os X.

Comments & replies please.

xfalcox
November 12th, 2009, 04:12 AM
I'm using Xubuntu 9.10 on a free box (Celeron 2.2 with 512mb) and it's VERY FAST.

I really don't think that 32bit ubuntu will go away any time in the next versions...

ad_267
November 12th, 2009, 04:16 AM
You've got nothing to worry about, they're not going to remove the 32 bit version.

mjp29
November 12th, 2009, 04:53 AM
I'm using Xubuntu 9.10 on a free box (Celeron 2.2 with 512mb) and it's VERY FAST.

I really don't think that 32bit ubuntu will go away any time in the next versions...

I'm kinda using Ubuntu 9.10 on a free Celeron (sticker on my laptop only says Celeron, how do I know which version of Celeron it is like you said you are Celeron 2.2)

Anyways, I feel that I'm using Ubuntu on a free laptop that is Celeron as I type right now. Now why did I say "I'm kinda using ... on a free Celeron?"

The answer to the question that I've posed to myself is this: My wife is an attorney that works from home on average 2 days a week. She must have a computer, and she uses a laptop, to do her work from home. This Dell laptop Celeron that I'm typing on right now actually crashed badly when it was using Windows XP and Windows could not recover itself or fix itself. So my wife contacted her computer people [she works at a very very large firm in my state that has lots of computer people]. She contacted them and they told her the system was toast and also the system was a Celeron and very old and get a new computer.

The very computer I'm typing on now, has only Ubuntu on it, and it is probably 5 years old, and she and I both agree it is running much faster and snappier than the $600 to $700 laptop she bought to keep working from home.

In fact, the computer I'm typing on now was going to be trashed totally. It was sitting around collecting dust for months. Once I got back into Ubuntu because her work had given me a few desktop boxes, I not only put Ubuntu on them but also decided to try to use a live install cd and put Ubuntu on this computer [again I'm typing on now].

Put Ubuntu live CD into this supposedly toast and too old of a computer to mess with, and guess what, Ubuntu brought it back to life and it is a wonderful little laptop that I simply love to use and now use 95% of the time [including now]. It's a Dell Inspiron 1000 that actually has far less memory than the boxes I got for free. And in fact, I've read that the Pentium 4 is a bit of superior chip to the Celeron chip.

I feel like I brought a computer from the dead that was going to be completely trashed and thrown away.

Ever see the Disney Toy Story movie where old toys with personification get sad because they've been tossed under the bed only for the new toys that the child has. That's what this computer I'm typing on now remindsme of. The old toys [old computer wife used] were once the child's [wife's] favorite but are a little worn out/broken and the new toys [new desktop] are the fad that the kids [wife] now play with [now use] ["their new favorite toy"]. I think the song to this on the Disney movie is titled "when she loved me."

Anyways, I feel like I've somehow brought a broken toy back out of storage that was going to be eventually trashed and saved the toy and also made the toy feel wanted again. It's truly very poetic.

Watch this video at this link and all will understand - it's a tear jerker so get your tissues ready now. The link below is actually not the official clip from the Disney movie, but it's the actual song. The video in link below is a rendition but a damn good rendition.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuVwfnBL2Ts&NR=1&feature=fvwp

another darn good rendition link below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR5aDdEHdlY

overdrank
November 12th, 2009, 05:01 AM
Moved to The Community Cafe

Roasted
November 12th, 2009, 05:08 AM
Considering Linux as a whole tends to boast that it "breathes new life into old systems", axing 32 bit would be kind of a bad idea, since old PCs aren't exactly triple core 64 bit chips.

blueshiftoverwatch
November 12th, 2009, 05:13 AM
Considering Linux as a whole tends to boast that it "breathes new life into old systems", axing 32 bit would be kind of a bad idea, since old PCs aren't exactly triple core 64 bit chips.
Ubuntu axed support for PowerPC pretty quickly. Although 32 bit is much more popular than PPC ever was. So I doubt it'll be going away any time soon. And I'm sure that distros like Debian will continue to support 32 bit long after Ubuntu stops.

mjp29
November 12th, 2009, 05:18 AM
You've got nothing to worry about, they're not going to remove the 32 bit version.

Eventually it will occur you must know. At some point in time these Pentium 4 and Celeron boxes will be as old as an Apple II or Commodore 64.

Which leads me to a curious question for all here to speculate on and try to answer, which is: How many years in the future do you predict that 32 bit will be removed?

mjp29
November 12th, 2009, 05:19 AM
Thank you.

Skripka
November 12th, 2009, 05:57 AM
Considering Linux as a whole tends to boast that it "breathes new life into old systems", axing 32 bit would be kind of a bad idea, since old PCs aren't exactly triple core 64 bit chips.

Dumping 32bit? No

Dumping the 30 year old i386 optimization in favor of i586/686, and welcoming the year 1995, would be a good start. Ubuntu doesn't even officially support installing or running on i386 CPUs in their official documentation.

The Funkbomb
November 12th, 2009, 06:04 AM
I don't know what you're worried about. I don't see it in the near future. Most people run 32bit. While 64bit is gaining popularity, it just doesn't have enough selling points for most people. The only reason I run it is because I have 8gb of ram. If it wasn't for that, I'd still be using 32bit.

pookiebear
November 12th, 2009, 06:32 AM
take a p4 3ghz single core and for 9 out of 10 apps it will blast a dual core out of the water for a single app. Most OS's and apps can't take advantage of dual cores properly. Where the dual core or more, shine is multiple apps running like a video getting converted in the background you can still work on your spreadsheet most of the time. On the single core you might want to take a lunch break. But for game playing I would take a single core 3ghz chip anyday.

This is why I hear so often from my customers... " this new computer is not faster than my old one" even if both had windows XP and office 2003. But they can do 6 things at the same speed they used to do 2.

SirBismuth
November 12th, 2009, 06:59 AM
Heh, if Ubuntu canned 32bit, I would have to upgrade! :D

I do plan on getting a 64bit system eventually, just don't have the need yet, Ubuntu runs just fine on my system currently. I will do that long before 32bit goes the way of the C64.

B

bonfire89
November 12th, 2009, 07:19 AM
I don't know what you're worried about. I don't see it in the near future. Most people run 32bit. While 64bit is gaining popularity, it just doesn't have enough selling points for most people. The only reason I run it is because I have 8gb of ram. If it wasn't for that, I'd still be using 32bit.

Yeah, I thought most people ran 32bit still while 64bit struggles to gain popularity at this point.

hobo14
November 12th, 2009, 09:07 AM
Eventually it will occur you must know. At some point in time these Pentium 4 and Celeron boxes will be as old as an Apple II or Commodore 64.

Which leads me to a curious question for all here to speculate on and try to answer, which is: How many years in the future do you predict that 32 bit will be removed?

Definitely will. But even when X.04 is released in 64 bit only, all the earlier versions of Ubuntu will still be available, for older hardware.

As for when we wave goodbye to 32bit: not far away.
For an example indicator, I had a look at Dell Australia's website; the only 32 bit systems for sale are netbooks, one single lonely "hybrid"(?) desktop, and the bottom rung laptop model. Everything else is 64 bit.

Exodist
November 12th, 2009, 10:07 AM
32 bit linux distros will still exist a good 10 years after the last chip is made for legacy reasons.

user1397
November 12th, 2009, 10:09 AM
Not to mention all system76 (http://system76.com) comps are preinstalled with 64 bit ubuntu :)

judge jankum
November 12th, 2009, 10:17 AM
I have Pentium 4 with 371 ram showing....The greatest thing about Ubuntu to me is I don't have to spend $500 dollars to buy a new system to run it like i would to run Vista or 7. OH!!! And Ubuntu is 10 times more stable on my puter!!!

matthew.ball
November 12th, 2009, 10:25 AM
Which leads me to a curious question for all here to speculate on and try to answer, which is: How many years in the future do you predict that 32 bit will be removed?
We will need to have moved on from 32-bit by 2038 I believe. Unix time etc.

judge jankum
November 12th, 2009, 10:28 AM
We will need to have moved on from 32-bit by 2038 I believe. Unix time etc.
2038? I just hope I'm still here lol!!!

murderslastcrow
November 12th, 2009, 10:33 AM
Most of the people I know who are using Ubuntu are doing it on old PPC Macs or 32-bit processor PCs because it increases performance and longevity. To discontinue anything but 64-bit and 128-bit or something like that would be incredibly foolish. But, like many people have commented, I doubt this will happen in the next couple decades. (if Linux gets fast enough people might stop using 64-bit so often, and the economy has made this quite evident)

inobe
November 12th, 2009, 10:37 AM
i see it like this.

hardware is evolving much faster than the software it runs on, we have dual core gpu's and 8 core cpu's and hardly the software to utilize these additional capabilities.

at this point in time most are eager to try their hardware and unlock it's full potential and this cannot be done if the software is not optimized for it.


honestly' they will always have a 32 bit version laying around.

BuffaloX
November 12th, 2009, 10:40 AM
I don't know why you worry about this at all, 32 bit Linux isn't going away anytime soon.

Even today 32 bit systems are sold, e.g. Netbooks with Intel Atom CPUs.
32 bit may be technologically obsolete, but it is still relevant in the low end market.

I expect Ubuntu will have 32 bit versions for at least about 5 more years, if things go as they usually do, (slowness of market ditching obsolete technologies.) it will probably be more like 10.
On top of that, I suspect the final 32 bit release will be an LTS, meaning you have 2 more years before your 32 bit system is unsupported by Ubuntu.
That gives you about 7-12 years more to keep your older laptops alive.

When 32 bit Ubuntu finally goes away, there will probably be another Linux distro that continue to support 32 bit, but I doubt you will need it by then.

Ubuntu wants very much to succeed in Africa too, I think there is much greater need to keep computers alive for longer there than anywhere else in the world.

ssam
November 12th, 2009, 11:14 AM
it will last a good few years after companies stop making them. people are still buy 32bit atoms cpus.

also note that ARM CPUs are all 32bit, and they could make a huge gain popularity with ARM netbooks.

you can see how popular the various archs are at http://popcon.ubuntu.com/ (or for debian http://popcon.debian.org/ or fedora http://smolt.fedoraproject.org/static/stats/stats.html) x86-32 is the top currently.

SunnyRabbiera
November 12th, 2009, 11:24 AM
Ubuntu axed support for PowerPC pretty quickly. Although 32 bit is much more popular than PPC ever was. So I doubt it'll be going away any time soon. And I'm sure that distros like Debian will continue to support 32 bit long after Ubuntu stops.

Yeh but PowerPC was much harder to work with, its the main reason why apple went intel as the intel architecture is far easier to deal with.
So I heard, however x86 and 32bit will be around a lot longer as most PC's still use older intels and full 64bit support in some apps is still not there yet *cough*flash*hack*

hobo14
November 12th, 2009, 11:28 AM
I'd say within a year, the only 32 bit pc systems for mainstream users sold by OEMs in western countries will be netbooks.

So discounting netbooks, and where they head and the effect they will have, there will be no new 32 bit hardware for the next Windows release, and so no dedicated 32 bit version of the next Windows.
I guess Ubuntu might hold out a bit longer though.

Kevbert
November 12th, 2009, 11:32 AM
It should be kept, as one of the best features of Linux/Ubuntu is that you can install it on an old PC and still have a working system (unlike Windows which seems to need more resources for every new release).

hobo14
November 12th, 2009, 11:46 AM
also note that ARM CPUs are all 32bit, and they could make a huge gain popularity with ARM netbooks.

Yeah, but ARM have been thinking/talking about 64 bit for a long time.
They can't be too far away from actually doing something about it...:p

ZankerH
November 12th, 2009, 11:49 AM
I haven't used ubuntu 32 bit since 7.10. That said, it's always a good idea to maintain backwards compatibility. If it doesn't drain inproportionate developer resources compared to the 32bit install base, keep it.

3rdalbum
November 12th, 2009, 01:47 PM
Most Intel Atom processors are 32-bit; so even though 64-bit processors have been mainstream for a very long time and 64-bit Linux is well and truly "Here", support will continue for 32-bit for the foreseeable future.

jespdj
November 12th, 2009, 02:08 PM
We will need to have moved on from 32-bit by 2038 I believe. Unix time etc.
See Year 2038 problem (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem) for more info.

forrestcupp
November 12th, 2009, 02:26 PM
What?! Commodore 64's are obsolete? I guess I'll have to start saving my money. I can't wait to start browsing the web at a resolution higher than 8 bit 320x200.


Don't worry. By the time they discontinue 32-bit support, you're wife's company will be giving you their old 64-bit computers.