Support is provided for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS systems, though

Dec 22, 2016 23:40 GMT  ·  By

Today, December 22, 2016, Canonical's Steve Langasek informed the community of the popular Ubuntu Linux operating system that support for 32-bit PPC (PowerPC) installation images will be dropped from Ubuntu 17.04 onwards.

The deprecation of 32-bit and PPC ISOs from Ubuntu was discussed last month by several Ubuntu developers during the Ubuntu Online Summit event, including Ubuntu MATE's Martin Wimpress, who is now a Canonical employee as part of the Ubuntu Desktop Team, so it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone out there closely watching the Ubuntu scene.

"We thank the Linux PowerPC community for their support of Ubuntu over the years. However, efforts since UOS to identify participants for such community support going forward have led to the inevitable conclusion that the powerpc port in Ubuntu has reached the end of its useful lifespan," said Steve Langasek  on behalf of Canonical's Technical Board.

PowerPC architecture still supported in current releases of Ubuntu Linux

The decision to deprecate the PowerPC 32-bit ISO images for future releases of Ubuntu Linux was made because of two reasons. One is that the Debian Project also announced earlier this year that was dropping support for the PPC architecture starting with the upcoming Debian GNU/Linux 9 "Stretch" operating system.

The second reason is the lack of interest from users for the PPC images of Ubuntu. The exact statistics have been explained in detail during the UOS conference, but it looks like the recorded video is no longer available online as the owner deleted the account. Also, upstream support for the 32-bit, Big Endian PowerPC architecture is no longer there.

As such, it appears that PPC64le (PowerPC 64-bit Little Endian) hardware architectures will still be supported, and Canonical promises to continue to support 32-bit PCC architectures in current releases of Ubuntu Linux, including Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus), until April 2021.