The release of the Debian GNU/Linux 9 "Stretch" operating system is upon us, and Debian developer Jonathan Wiltshire informs us today, October 31, 2016, about the supported hardware architectures for the upcoming release.

The exact release date of the Debian GNU/Linux 9 "Stretch" distribution has not yet been announced, but we're now fully aware of the supported hardware architectures, which include 64-bit (amd64), 32-bit (i386), AArch64 (ARM64), MIPS, MIPS 64-bit Little Endian (mips64el), Armel, ARMhf, IMB System z (s390x), MIPS Little Endian (MIPSel), and PowerPC 64-bit Little Endian (ppc64el).

"The only change from Jessie is the removal of powerpc as a release architecture. We discussed this at length, and eventually took the view that the least disservice to users of that port is to provide reasonable notice of its discontinuation," said Jonathan Wiltshire in a mailing list announcement. "We recognize and acknowledge that discontinuing any port is unavoidably disruptive."

Debian GNU/Linux 9 "Stretch" PPC (PowerPC) support removed

As you can see, the Debian Project have decided that it's time to deprecate the support for the PowerPC (PPC) hardware architecture from the Debian GNU/Linux operating system, starting with the upcoming Debian GNU/Linux 9 "Stretch" release. Also in question is if the PPC (powerpc) port will remain an architecture in the main FTP archive of the GNU/Linux distribution.

That being said, if you're currently using Debian on a PowerPC computer, you should be aware of the fact that you won't be able to upgrade to Debian GNU/Linux 9 "Stretch" when it's officially released. However, that should not be an issue because the Debian GNU/Linux 8 "Jessie" release should receive support for at least a couple of years.