14 DAY TRIAL // Arch Linux developer Bartłomiej Piotrowski is announcing the upcoming deprecation of 32-bit (i686) support from the official ISO image of the popular rolling release operating system.
For now, it's only a draft message on their arch-dev-public mailing list, but it will soon be published on the official Arch Linux website for all users, and it means that the forthcoming February 1, 2017 release of Arch Linux will be the last one provided as a dual-arch ISO image, for both 64- and 32-bit hardware platforms.
Starting with the March 1, 2017 release, the official Arch Linux ISO won't be a dual-arch one, but only a 64-bit image, which means that you won't be able to install the operating system on a 32-bit computer, if you still have one of those around. However, 32-bit support for existing systems is not going away anytime soon.
"Due to the decreasing popularity of i686 among the developers and the community, we have decided to phase out the support of this architecture," said Bartłomiej Piotrowski. "The decision means that February ISO will be the last that allows to install 32-bit Arch Linux. The next 9 months are deprecation period, during which i686 will be still receiving upgraded packages."
Unofficial 32-bit ISOs of Arch Linux could be provided by the community
There's no need to panic if you're using Arch Linux on a 32-bit system, because package updates will be provided for you through the official channels, until the end of October 2017. From November 2017 onwards, i686 support is becoming obsolete, but there's a chance that the community can keep 32-bit support alive for a longer period.
Those interested in keeping 32-bit support alive are encouraged to contact the Arch Linux developers through the official channels, and with their guidance, it might still be possible to install the operating system on a 32-bit machine. We also recommend reading the entire discussion thread for more details on the matter.