On Wed, 2020-07-01 at 21:14 -0400, Sam Varshavchik wrote:Solomon Peachy writes:Even putting that aside, for the past several years CSM/BIOS has been slowly bitrotting due to a lack of real testing, as the last few Windows releases have mandated use of UEFI for preinstalled systems, plus the EOLing of Windows 7 and (especially) XP.That's only because it's Microsoft.Note that, even though Microsoft is pushing for UEFI on new systems in the OEM version of Windows, they still support booting in legacy BIOS mode in the latest Windows 10 version and they even support a 32-bit version of Windows 10, which Fedora no longer does, so you can install and run it on even older hardware than Fedora. Even the latest May 2020 update of Windows 10 has a 32-bit retail version that is directly downloadable from their website: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO The only Windows that no longer supports 32-bit systems is Windows Server. So the obsolescence of Windows 7 and XP is irrelevant. I'm by no means a Microsoft fan, but these are facts. Fedora is pushing for hardware obsolescence faster than Microsoft in this regard. :( To be completely fair, I must say that Fedora runs on first generation AMD64 hardware, while the 64-bit version of Windows no longer does, but the 32-bit Windows 10 still works on them, and on even earlier CPUs that are 32-bit only, which Fedora no longer supports.
I think linux distribution started to drop 32bit back in 2015 so Fedora has just been following that trend and Microsoft is seemingly dropping 32bit [1] ( probably no wants to pay for that support anymore supply and demand).
" Beginning with Windows 10, version 2004, all new Windows 10 systems will be required to use 64-bit builds and Microsoft will no longer release 32-bit builds for OEM distribution."
At one point or another Fedora needs to reach consensus on how
old hardware should be considered "supported" to set realistic end
users expectations accordingly as well as not to find it in a
situation in which an old hw blocks the progress of the
distribution or a change of a primary architecture ( everything
seems to be moving to arm these days ) and visa versa ensure that
older hw is "supported" for the duration of that time that it's
promised but that's a topic for an entirely different thread.
JBG