Post by enigma9o7 on Apr 8, 2023 21:22:36 GMT
In a couple more weeks, Ubuntu 18.04 will go EOL. In another recent thread Stefan said Bodhi 5.1 is no longer getting Moksha updates (which inst surprising considering Bodhi 7 is currently being tested). So basically, Bodhi won't offer a fully supported 32-bit version anymore unless action is taken!
You may have seen me push for an updated 32-bit version of Bodhi before. Not only do I have my own 32-bit machine, I also think we are one of the best distros to run on such hardware - it's what brought me to Bodhi in the first place! I use the Debian-Bullseye based Bodhi-6-beta on my P4, and have provided feedback on all the issues and observations I could come up with, but it never made it to release. Without going back and re-reading the thread, I believe the main reason was because we didn't wanna use the official Debian kernel as it doesn't work on some old machines, including ylee's test machine. (And of course ylee's time is always an issue.)
I of course still think we should release a new 32-bit version. And as to the kernel, I think releasing with debian kernel is better than not releasing at all, because the majority of 32-bit systems do work fine with it, there are not supposed to be regressions in kernel that would cause machines to not boot anymore. (Plus my usb nintendo switch controller requires new kernel!) Besides, I saw there was an alpha version of bodhi 7-64 that used an alternative kernel, so perhaps the technique to use alternative kernels has been figured out by now if that's still important.
Last week Debian released the first release candidate of version 12 which still has full 32-bit i686 support. I would really love to see 32-bit Bodhi 7 Legacy based on Debian 12 Bookworm released at the same time as 64-bit Bodhi 7. I would be more than happy to test any alpha/beta/rc on VM and hardware. Based on my personal alpha testing, I feel like 64-bit Bodhi will soon be ready for a beta or maybe even RC, so in theory after that comes out, we could focus on 32-bit while waiting for final 64-bit bug reports/issues. I expect there will be only minimal changes needed between 64-bit beta, rc, and release so it won't take much time, other than the work of an iso respin at release time. (of course I always imagine things are easier than they actually are..)
Of course I am well aware ylee has health issues, has a real job, and somehow is still working on the 64-bit release when he feels up to it, so I understand if nothing happens. Just sharing my thoughts.