14 DAY TRIAL // Canonical engineer Josh Powers posted a message today on the ubuntu-server mailing list to confirm the removal of the 32-bit (i386) daily ISO images of Ubuntu Server starting with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.
Following in the footsteps of Ubuntu Desktop, the Ubuntu Server official flavor won't be shipping with 32-bit ISO images when the Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver) operating system will be released next year in April. Therefore, you won't be able to install Ubuntu 18.04 LTS as a server, nor desktop OS on an old 32-bit computer.
"After no objections or issues were brought up on the ubuntu-server mailing list, I am requesting the removal of the Ubuntu Server i386 daily images starting with 18.04. As with the desktop i386 ISO change, there are no other changes requested to d-i, mini.iso, archive, or the upgrade paths," writes Josh Powers on the mailing list.
The removal of the 32-bit ISO images of the Ubuntu Server edition was discussed internally over at Canonical since early November, and there aren't any 32-bit daily builds available to download on Canonical's servers. However, today it was confirmed that Ubuntu 18.04 LTS would be a 64-bit release on both desktop and server.
Official Ubuntu flavors still won't drop 32-bit support
It would appear that existing Ubuntu 17.10 Server 32-bit users won't be able to upgrade to Ubuntu 18.04 LTS next year, so they'll have to do a reinstall, of course. More and more GNU/Linux distributions are dropping 32-bit support lately, yet most of the official Ubuntu flavors like Lubuntu, Xubuntu, Kubuntu or Ubuntu MATE won't very soon.
It's true that some distros are targeted at older computers, such as Lubuntu, Xubuntu or Ubuntu MATE, as they ship with desktop environments that eat less resources than the more powerful and widely-used GNOME and KDE. So they should support 32-bit computers for a few more years, at least Lubuntu will, as developer Simon Quigley confirmed for Softpedia today.