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I was looking for the latest version of Ubuntu for i386 (32 bit)

It is it right ?

Pablo Bianchi
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erc mgddm
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    Ubuntu 17.10 or the 2017-October release is EOL (end-of-life). https://fridge.ubuntu.com/2018/07/19/ubuntu-17-10-artful-aardvark-end-of-life-reached-on-july-19-2018/ Refer https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EOLUpgrades but note it's no longer supported on this site due to EOL status (https://askubuntu.com/help/on-topic) – guiverc Nov 17 '21 at 12:29
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    Ubuntu produced i386 ISOs into the disco (19.04) cycle which was well past artful or 17.10; it's just that fewer ISO options were provided; eg. Ubuntu 18.04 LTS ISOs were produced (including flavors), just no desktop ISO, but you could use another ISO & add the desktop as Ubuntu Desktop was fully supported in 18.04; just no i386 Desktop ISO produced. Ubuntu Desktop didn't make much sense with 18.04 as few i386 machines met the specs; flavors made more sense & they were produced (two flavors also produced 18.10 released products, and continued into 19.04). i386 was only disabled in eoan – guiverc Nov 17 '21 at 12:31
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    Because 18.10 & 19.04 are EOL; the 18.04 LTS is the last i386 release still with some support (excluding ESM which is off-topic here) – guiverc Nov 17 '21 at 12:33
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    You find a lot of detailed support for old computers at this Ubuntu Forums link. – sudodus Nov 17 '21 at 12:47
  • i386 (32-bit) install .iso were dropped after 19.04 for two main reasons: 1) The Gnome experience on 32-bit was rather poor, and 2) A shortage of 32-bit volunteers willing to do the testing and work on #1. Many 32-bit libraries remain in the Ubuntu repositories to support common 32-bit applications (like Steam). Debian still has a 32-bit desktop installer. There is no policy prohibiting resumption of a full Ubuntu 32-bit desktop; it merely requires enough volunteers to do the work required. – user535733 Nov 17 '21 at 12:59
  • I believe @user535733 meant 17.04 in the prior comment (not 19.04) – guiverc Nov 17 '21 at 13:12
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    Does this answer your question? Why is there no 32 bit ISO for the new Ubuntu 18.04? – N0rbert Nov 17 '21 at 14:53
  • Thanks guiverc, N0rbert, I used lubuntu-18.04.5-desktop-i386.iso – erc mgddm Nov 19 '21 at 08:47

1 Answers1

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The only supported i386 release is Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.

http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/bionic-updates/main/installer-i386/current/images/netboot/ is an example of an 18.04 i386 Ubuntu ISO. It allows you to install Ubuntu Desktop 18.04 LTS, though you need to ensure your machine meets the Minimum System Requirements

Ubuntu produced i386 ISOs into the disco (19.04) cycle which was well past artful or 17.10; it's just that fewer ISO options were provided; eg. Ubuntu 18.04 LTS ISOs were produced (including flavors), just no desktop ISO, but you could use another ISO & add the desktop as Ubuntu Desktop was fully supported in 18.04; just no i386 Desktop ISO produced.

Ubuntu Desktop didn't make much sense with 18.04 as few i386 machines met the minimum system requirements; flavors made more sense & they were produced for 18.04; with two flavors (Lubuntu & Xubuntu) also producing & released 18.10, and continued into the 19.04 development cycle. If a 19.04 alpha ISO was installed; it received updates the life of 19.04.

i386 was only finally disabled in beta stage of eoan or 19.10.

Opinion: I QA-tested 18.04 using pentium M, pentium D, pentium 4 & early atom machines; and none were capable of really running a GNOME desktop; even the pentium D which was dual core struggled & whilst it may have "run", it was more of a very slow "walk" that wasn't fun to use - flavors made much more sense in my opinion; as all i386 CPUs ran the lighter flavors much better

guiverc
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    Technically; all Ubuntu 18.04 LTS flavors have reached & passed their EOL; as flavors came with 3 years of support; it was only Ubuntu Desktop, Server, Cloud & like products that had the 3 years extended to 5 years. If for example you installed Lubuntu 18.04 LTS (now EOL), the base system still receives upgraded packages, and I think of now as a Ubuntu 18.04 LTS system with LXDE; not as Lubuntu anymore (but maybe that's just me - Ubuntu 18.04 LTS receives support & is on-topic here until 2023-April) – guiverc Nov 17 '21 at 12:53
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    Not only Ubuntu Desktop but also Ubuntu Server 18.04 LTS is still supported. An old computer can still be useful as a file server (much more so that a desktop system, that is lagging because the hardware cannot cope with the desktop environment). – sudodus Nov 17 '21 at 12:55
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    Yeah I didn't mention server in the answer (I did in the subsequent comment about flavors; quoting badly what I've pasted many times into the fridge notices..) Most i386 hardware was PATA, and the few that had SATA were rather slow & not fast servers, at least in my experience.. Yes I've got really old servers still (with SCSI & SAS drives) but they're all amd64 even up to 20 years ago. – guiverc Nov 17 '21 at 13:00