As reiterated by the OP, the proposal is just a proposal and was proposed with heaps of lead time probably because they expected it to be controversial.

As also mentioned, heaps of volunteer time is spent maintaining the packages where most are barely used (even for gaming).

However, it does not seem like there is a viable alternative. Many comments say the suggested alternative, WINE's WoW64, does not work for all games.

I can see both sides here. Fedora maintainers says "this is so much work!" and (mostly) gamers saying "But older games will stop working!".

The response from the Bazzite guy does seem overblown to me. I would think the first step is to work out the impact, as I haven't seen anyone quantify what proportion of games are affected and if there are alternatives like emulation.

Dammit - found Bazzite one week ago and love it - now its embroiled in a controversy.

For those that think the response is overblown, from the thread:

These images are intended to be a drop-in replacement for Steam Deck OS for handheld console-like gaming PCs like the Steam Deck (Lenovo Legion Go, ASUS ROG Ally, MSI Claw, and other hardware in the same space).

These are also to be used to create gaming theater PCs, for streamlined use on a living room television.

The issue with “just using Flatpak or a container” is that the gamescope compositor simply does not work in those situations, when paired with Steam’s Gaming Mode, as it has the same concerns as a desktop environment. There would simply be no way to serve Gaming Mode as an environment.

As such, moving to this would essentially force Bazzite, as a project, to abandon its primary reason for existing - alienating 2/3s of their userbase. The remaining 1/3s would be served a lesser experience for a variety of more paper cut reasons, and VR is already a complex topic which would get even worse.

It's a big deal because disallowing the native steam build would make it nearly impossible to run bazzite in a SteamOS-like experience (which accounts for 2/3s of bazzite's users)

Glad I didnt install bazzite.

Did he elaborate on why? Is it really that integral to have 32bit tools?

After Bazzite I went to Garuda, is also gaming focused and has a handy helper app that helps you install common software, run updates, and more.

If you need a new distro it's worth a look.

Instead of shutting down why not choose another distro base

Hear me out... But should we be asking why there are so many things, steam included, that are still on 32b libraries?

PikaOS is Debian based, and they've built the deps they need for Steam in 32-bit, so it's not the end of the world AFAIK. GloriousEggroll seems to be part of it too, so if any refugees are looking for something not Fedora-based there you go. Although his efforts for now seem focused more on Nobara (which is Fedora-based) maybe this will cause some shake-ups there too. I can see Pika is already picking up speed from this though, the Discord is super active.

Even if Fedora doesn't ever drop support I think even considering the possibility is shaking people's confidence in using it as a base going forward, sort of like how Unity's quickly-walked-back disasters drove people irrevocably towards Godot and other engines. Arch and Arch-based distros are probably starting to look much more appealing too.

I would be shocked if Fedora went through with it. If anyone remembers canonical tried to do this with you one to some years ago. They backed down then after push back as well.

Throwing a tantrum isn't how to get what you want. This is a common behavior in the OSS world from wannabe BDFLs. Linus Torvalds or Guido van Rossum earned that title through merit, not through the simple luck of your side project going viral.

Bazzite is just Fedora Atomic with some extra preinstalled software. If it dies, it'll hurt the community of Linux gamers who picked it for whatever reason, but it won't make Fedora maintain 32 bit packages forever.

God fucking damnit, I finally find a Linux OS that gels with me and I find this shit....

I think I can hear Bringus sobbing somewhere

When Redhat went Fedora, I learned Debian and Ubuntu. When they decided to flush CentOS, I GTFO even professionally and stayed out of their ancestral distros.

Don't get me wrong, I'm down with change and updating, but they are very focused on making things better/easier for themselves without worries about who they're supposed to be supporting.

I really feel for the Bazzite developer over the possible Fedora decision. That just plain sucks. Fedora was never a big gaming distro though. Hindisght is 20/20 and all that, but why pick that one as base in the first place?

We shouldn't be talking about stuff like this here. It spooks the noobs.

dang. That was supposed to be my go to OS once I got my data backed up.
any chance someone could recommend another distro for me?

it would be on my Laptop. Fairly new, Intel IRIS cpu, no dedicated GPU (can get specs if needed).
I'm going into UNI for comp sci next year
I want KDE as a requirement.
I would prefer it to be arch based so my knowledge can be transferred to messing with my steam deck, but not a requirement.

I also tinkered my previous distros to death by messing with terminal commands I didn't know (it's how you learn!). I would prefer something to back it up if I accidentally delete a million packages like last time but I don't know if that would be something dependent on the OS or just a program.

I don't really understand what immutable is, but I think my SteamDeck is immutable so I think I want it 🤷‍♀️

any recommendations/tips would be appreciated 🩷