Google has quietly announced it will end support for its Chrome browser on 32-bit Linux. This doesn't affect the 64-bit build.

“To provide the best experience for the most-used Linux versions, we will end support for Google Chrome on 32-bit Linux, Ubuntu Precise (12.04), and Debian 7 (wheezy) in early March, 2016,” writes Googler Dirk Pranke on the Chromium developers list.

“Chrome will continue to function on these platforms but will no longer receive updates and security fixes,” he writes, adding: “We intend to continue supporting the 32-bit build configurations on Linux to support building Chromium. If you are using Precise, we’d recommend that you to upgrade to Trusty.”

Thus, the open-source version of Chromium isn't impacted by this decision, so those who really want to keep using a Chrome-family browser on 32-bit Linux can continue to do so.

Those who want to kick up a fuss about this decision are also, of course, free to do so. But with Linux owning a tiny desktop market share, it's not hard to see why Google would focus its energies elsewhere when considering the packaged version of Chrome. ®