32-bit Linux systems with Fedora 31 will no longer be supported

Fedora recently revealed that it will stop the support for 32-bit (i686) machines, although this is not new among the Linux distros. And Fedora 31, will not support the 32-bit Linux.

Justin Forbes (the maintainer of the Fedora kernel) stated in a post in Fedora's Wiki that the team behind the Linux distro would “stop producing i686 bootable images.” Forbes reasons that “most x86 hardware support 64bit (sic) these days.” Forbes also referred to the lack of community development since the release of Fedora 27, when 32-bit development was moved to a “community-supported” status.

Forbes pointed out that the lack of support for the 32-bit kernel often causes issues to fall through the cracks until they rear their heads on 32-bit installs. These bugs then linger as developers are more focused on developing and patching 64-bit installs and libraries. Eliminating the 32-bit kernel, according to Forbes, would also eliminate these problems.

But there is no need to panic, Fedora 31 won’t drop support for all 32-bit packages as it will continue to support specific 32-bit libraries. This is to “ensure things like multilib, wine, and Steam will continue to work,” according to Forbes.