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Feedback: Deprecating Linux x86 build target

Discussion in 'Linux' started by PJayB, Nov 2, 2018.

  1. PJayB

    PJayB

    Unity Technologies

    Joined:
    Apr 24, 2017
    Posts:
    105
    Hi all,

    We're intending to remove our x86 Linux Standalone Player in our 2019 LTS release. This includes our Universal build target, which targets both 32-bit and 64-bit side-by-side. In the 2018.3 LTS you will see that these targets are still available, but are marked as Deprecated in the Build Window to give 32-bit developers a long lead time to make the appropriate updates.

    NOTE: The Linux x86 and Universal targets are still officially supported by Unity in 2018.3 LTS.

    Our telemetry shows that, in the past 12 months, the number of users running Linux on 32-bit hardware is in the order of a few dozen unique devices per month, relative to the thousands for 64-bit per month. Despite this, our telemetry also shows that our x86 Linux Standalone Player is still almost 33% of our average total Linux Standalone Player usage.

    However, here are some of our reasons for continuing to consider this:
    • Shipping a 32-bit Player has been, traditionally, the best option to make games accessible to the lower-end hardware market. However, based on our telemetry, we believe there is no longer any advantage to explicitly targeting this hardware for Linux.
    • Unity versions older than 5.6 still account for most of the 32-bit usage, and 5.6 saw a huge decline. Looking at the data for more recent versions, developers are opting into targeting 64-bit. In the event that a developer does decide to upgrade their 5.5-or-earlier-based game or app to 2019 versions of Unity, they have an opportunity to switch to 64-bit.
    • x86 was the default selection for Linux in the Editor's Build window until recently. Switching to x64 caused a re-import, so for good reason, many developers left it set as the default. As of 2018.2 the default is x64, but 2018.2 is still very new and it is too early to know whether this has significantly impacted 32-bit build numbers.
    • Some native plugins are only available for 32-bit, but we think that as of 2019 LTS, the majority of native plugins will offer x64 versions. 32-bit plugin vendors will have almost a year to port their plugins to 64-bit.
    Do you feel that deprecating 32-bit for the end of 2019 would disrupt your development significantly? If so, how?
     
    xucian likes this.
  2. Joe-Censored

    Joe-Censored

    Joined:
    Mar 26, 2013
    Posts:
    11,847
    This move makes sense.