Neil Bothwick <n...@digimed.co.uk> writes: > On Fri, 08 Jan 2016 21:37:55 +0100, lee wrote: > >> > What about things like flash plugins? Those are often wanted on >> > desktops and need multilib. >> >> Flash sucks, and fortunately, it's dead. > > It should be, but it's not. There are still many sites that require it.
It's not my problem when they are still using it. >> 64bit should be the default for all profiles, with the option to add >> 32bit support in case you need it. Which parts of gnome, kde or another >> IDE don't compile as 64bit? > > That's where the ABI_* stuff comes in, which I believe should replace > multilib eventually. The problem is not software you compile, it is > precompiled software. If you don't like flash, here's another example > that you probably hate but is needed by a lot of people - Skype. Skype sucks --- and it's not usable at all because there is no privacy whatsoever. They will listen in and record whatever they like. You may also have some ancient games you might want to play, or you can have an old computer that doesn't do 64bit. And if you do want to use 32bit software or an old computer, nothing would prevent you from selecting a profile that gives you 32bit support, or you can have everything in 32bit. That there are a few special cases for which some people still need it doesn't mean that everyone should be forced to use a multilib profile when 100% of the software they're running is 64bit.
