I don't think that's good news at all.
One of the premises of Linux is/was that it provided support from
machines that got bogged
down with systems like Windows ME, XP and Vista as well as extremely
under-powered pcs.
This basically means that very many machines indeed which are perfectly
functional will either have
to stick on their current OS or be chucked in a landfill: the first
option is awkward as updates of
software such as Firefox will stop working, and there may not be people
who are prepared
to work on side clones such as Classilla [
http://www.floodgap.com/software/classilla/ ] and
TenFourFox [ http://www.floodgap.com/software/tenfourfox/ ].
"Given that 64-bit CPUs have been been dominant for more than a decade",
well, maybe in
the rich countries such as the USA, but most definitely not in Eastern
Europe, Africa, the Sub-Continent,
and so on.
I can hear the voice of the first world who forget that knowledge should
not be a privilege of the
"haves", and that in our world as it is at the moment, children who do
not have access to knowledge
(not very good libraries in many parts of the world) and ways of
accessing that knowledge are at
a huge disadvantage. Now I am NOT a bleeding-heart Socialist, or a
bleeding-heart anything else,
but after the 32 bit computers I bought second-hand from Germany "move
on" I would far rather
that they be put to good use as educational tools as long as possible
rather than being shoved in holes
in the ground to further poison our collective home; or "recycled" in
various ways which, whatever 'they' tell you, releases all sorts of
entertaining gases into the atmosphere.
This may sound odd, that software has an effect on landfills; but it does.
"I think this is pretty good news for us LiveCoders."
Really! What about Livecoders who want to produce standalones to run on
32-bit Linux?
For the sake of argument: I have 10 32-bit computers in my school that
function very well indeed,
now this news re Linux does not fuss me as they can merrily trot along
using Xubuntu 14.04 LTS for
an awful lot LT than the S, and I can carry on usinf current 32 bit
Livecode versions for trotting out EFL
delivery progs. for them. I am certainly NOT going to pitch them and
invest in 10 64 bit machines.
BUT, then, I don't have access to the internet in my school because that
is not necessary.
However, I do send copies of my programs off to a few schools in
Botswana where a bloke
who was at school with me is doing wonders with just about the crappiest
machines you can think of,
and he does have internet access, and uses it.
This actually makes me think that, open source or not, Linux is getting
subtly commercialised.
Ubuntu has already demonstrated its "We know better than our end-users
do" attitude several times;
the arrogance of success I suppose. Luckily one is still able to strap
XFCE, LXDE, Cinnamon and so on onto the front of it so one doesn't have
to use the awkward resource-sucker they push out as their
"official" desktop.
Ubuntu may just find that their uptake level suddenly goes right down.
Richmond.
On 1.07.2016 21:56, Richard Gaskin wrote:
Looks like Ubuntu will be joining Fedora and OpenSUSE in dropping
support for 32-bit editions in future versions.
Given that 64-bit CPUs have been been dominant for more than a decade,
I think this is pretty good news for us LiveCoders. As new distros
drop support for older 32-bit CPUs eventually LC can follow suit,
allowing a more streamlined development and build process for modern
systems.
End of an era: Linux distributions will soon stop supporting 32-bit PCs
<http://www.pcworld.com/article/3089509/linux/end-of-an-era-linux-distributions-will-soon-stop-supporting-32-bit-pcs.html>
_______________________________________________
use-livecode mailing list
[email protected]
Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription
preferences:
http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
