Agreed, especially when there is little to no call for such a thing.

For example, Python 2 and Python 3 can and do coexist. i686 builds can coexist with x86_64 builds.

On September 18, 2019 9:56:49 AM UTC, Kevin Kofler <kevin.kofler@chello.at> wrote:
John M. Harris, Jr. wrote:
These are generic servers. I can provide a link to the vendor's website
when I get home. It is not Dell, Lenovo or similar, those are currently
selling mostly x86_64. Additionally, many users don't want to buy a new
computer just because a software project made the decision to randomly
drop support for their architecture. I am certainly one of those. The
hardware is fine, perfect working condition. I don't understand why we
should simply turn these to e-waste because somebody flipped the
proverbial switch.

Unfortunately, Fedora has lately become mainly about randomly dropping
support for things:
* dropping, in short succession, of the i686 kernel, the i686 images, and
then even the i686 repositories even though there are legitimate use cases
for them on an x86_64 kernel (e.g., building multilib packages),
* the insane proposal to require AVX2 for x86_64, which has thankfully not
been implemented so far, but against which we will likely have to fight
again and again during the next few years,
* the reenforcement of the mass-retirement procedures and the resulting
aggressive mass-retirement of hundreds of FTBFS or orphaned packages, with
no regards to why (or even if, in the latter case) they fail to build,
whether they still work, how essential they are, nor what or how many
other packages (including essential ones) depend on them,
* the unprecedentedly aggressive removal of Python 2 and anything remotely
related to it, where useful packages can arbitrarily be vetoed by
committee (see e.g. https://pagure.io/fesco/issue/2223 ).

All these are moves which are leaving, will leave, or would leave thousands
of users in the cold when and if they have been, are, will be, or would be
implemented.

I miss the times when Fedora was still an inclusive project, focused on
adding things rather than on removing them.

Each time you drop an architecture (e.g. i686), a subset of an architecture
(e.g. pre-AVX2 x86_64), or one or more packages, you are excluding dozens,
hundreds, thousands, or even millions of users. Removing things is actively
harmful to Fedora.

Kevin Kofler
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