Change of scope and target market for i386

Dear Release team, Please action the below and remove Ubuntu Desktop i386 daily-live images from the release manifest for Beta and Final milestones of 17.10 and therefore do not ship ubuntu-desktop-i386.iso artifact for 17.10. As a followup to this thread it has been confirmed that argumentation below is sound, and furthermore there is no longer any effective qa or testing of the desktop product on actual i386 hardware (explicitly non x86_64 CPUs). There are no other changes requested to d-i, mini.iso, archive, or the upgrade paths. Regards, Dimitri. On 3 May 2017 at 13:01, Dimitri John Ledkov <xnox at ubuntu.com> wrote: > ###### > NB! this is a mailing list for developers, and this is a _proposal_ > that I want to discuss with the *buntu developers. There is no need to > OMG this, especially since this is a recurring discussion every single > development cycle for many years now... > ###### > > > Hello, > > Currently Ubuntu provides many installation medias: > > * Ubuntu Core snappy architecture images > > * Cloud images > > * Container images > > * Server subiquity img/iso > > * Server classic img/iso > > * Desktop live > > * Netinst > > * Board-specific pre-installed builds > > i386 architecture is changing. > > It is no longer the default, nor most widely used architecture on the > traditional form factors: desktop, laptop, rack servers. > > But i386 is becoming more of a purpose built architecture, similar to > how in the past "embedded" devices label was applied. Today, I would > call it an IoT; single purpose device; and a cloud/container guest > architecture. > > Ubuntu website download pages have stopped advertising traditional > i386 images for either desktop, server, or cloud, without any > significant backslash and without any noticeable drops in the download > rates. > > Therefore I would like to propose the following change of scope for > the i386 architecture. > > = Continue to provide for i386 = > > * The Ubuntu archive with security updates > > * Ubuntu Core snappy architecture images > > * Cloud images > > * Container images > > * Server subiquity img/iso > > * netinst > > = Discontinue to provide for i386 = > > * Server classic img/iso > > * Desktop live > > = Rationale for change = > > The above images and scope for i386 will: > > * Expand and grow deployments in the IoT devices sector > > * continue to support the declining i386 classic desktop/server user base > > * Maintain support for minimal / workload-specific cloud deployments > (cloud & container guests) > > = Flavors = > > Flavor leads and developers, please consider if the above structure > would also be suitable for your target market and user bases. I.e. > Continue to provide packages and the upgrade path, but discontinue to > manufacture the i386 full-sized / live-cd installation media. > > -- > Regards, > > Dimitri. -- Regards, Dimitri.