Steam will not support Ubuntu 19.10 onwards
It is only a few days since Canonical announced that it was dropping support for 32-bit packages as of Ubuntu 19.10. The fall out from this is now being felt.
While there were many developers who were not happy with the decision, Linux-based gamers are now likely to be more than slightly annoyed. Steam has announced that "Ubuntu 19.10 and future releases will not be officially supported by Steam or recommended to our users".
See also:
- Ubuntu is dropping i386 support and WINE developers are irked
- Kali Linux sets out its roadmap for 2019/20
- Netflix discovers SACK Panic and other Linux security flaws
As noted by How-To Geek, Ubuntu's move away from 32-bit packages presents a problem for Steam. A number of Linux games are only available as 32-bit titles, and the reason they are currently able to run in Ubuntu is down to its support for 32-bit libraries
Valve's Pierre-Loup Griffais tweeted:
Ubuntu 19.10 and future releases will not be officially supported by Steam or recommended to our users. We will evaluate ways to minimize breakage for existing users, but will also switch our focus to a different distribution, currently TBD.
— Pierre-Loup Griffais (@Plagman2) June 22, 2019
In short, unless there is a change of heart by either Valve or Canonical, Ubuntu users will either have to stick with an old version of their favorite Linux distro, or switch to something different.