Due to Canonical dropping 32-bit support

Jun 24, 2019 03:36 GMT  ·  By

Valve developer Pierre-Loup Griffais working on Steam for Linux announced that they will drop support for the upcoming Ubuntu 19.10 release, as well as future Ubuntu Linux releases.

Valve's harsh announcement comes just a few days after Canonical's announcement that they will drop support for 32-bit (i386) architectures in Ubuntu 19.10 (Eoan Ermine). Pierre-Loup Griffais said on Twitter that Steam for Linux won't be officially supported on Ubuntu 19.10, nor any future releases.

The Steam developer also added that Valve will focus their efforts on supporting other Linux-based operating systems for Steam for Linux. They will be looking for a GNU/Linux distribution that still offers support for 32-bit apps, and that they will try to minimize the breakage for Ubuntu users.

"Ubuntu 19.10 and future releases will not be officially supported by Steam or recommended to our users. We will evaluate ways to minimize breakage for existing users, but will also switch our focus to a different distribution, currently TBD," said Valve developer Pierre-Loup Griffais.

There are other ways to run Steam for Linux on Ubuntu

Despite Valve's harsh announcement, which will broke the hearts of numerous Linux gamers playing on Ubuntu, which is currently one of the most popular Linux-based operating systems for desktops, there are still other ways to package and distribute the Steam for Linux client on Ubuntu 19.10 (Eoan Ermine).

For example, Valve should focus on adopting the well-known Flatpak universal binary format for distributing Steam for Linux on future Ubuntu releases, which not only will make it much easier to install Steam, but it will also allow it to run on an isolated container.

In their announcement, Canonical claimed that there will be ways to run 32-bit apps on Ubuntu 19.10 and future releases, so we believe Valve will also find a way for its Steam for Linux client to run on Ubuntu, which is currently the recommended Linux-based operating system for numerous Steam games. Dubbed Eoan Ermine, Ubuntu 19.10 is due for release on October 17th, 2019.

Update 27/06/19: Valve released a statement to inform the Linux gaming community that they changed their minds and decided to continue support future Ubuntu releases for the time being due to Canonical's decision to support certain 32-bit packages after all. More details are available here.