Ubuntu News: No 32-bit Support For Ubuntu Server 18.04, Ubuntu 17.10 Links Pulled, New Spotify Snap

This week has been pretty eventful when it comes to the developments taking place in the world of Ubuntu. So, I thought I’d tell all about them, in brief, to keep you updated. Let’s take a look:

Ubuntu Server 18.04 LTS drops 32-bit support

Following the footsteps of Ubuntu Desktop, which has already scrapped its 32-bit releases, Ubuntu Server has also decided to do the same in next release. This step has been taken a couple of months after no objections were raised on the proposal made on the Ubuntu Server mailing list. This change to server ISO won’t be affecting mini ISO, i386 package archive, or Debian installer images.

On a side note, Ubuntu LTS was recently featured on our list of best Linux distros for servers. Do take a look.

17.10 links temporarily pulled

In a move that was first seen as a surprise to many Ubuntu-lovers, Canonical has pulled the download links of Ubuntu 17.10. However, this step was taken due to an issue which was corrupting the BIOS on numerous Lenovo laptops. As a result, the machines are turning into a brick and people are unable to boot them.

As per the bug description on Launchpad, this problem might have stemmed from enabling the intel-spi-* drivers in the kernel, which are not ready for use by end-users. Canonical is treating this issue as a top priority and working with Lenovo to find a fix and make the download links live again.

Installing Spotify on Linux becomes easier

Spotify has released a Snap for Linux machines to help all the supported distros install the music streaming app in a seamless manner. “We’re glad to welcome Spotify to the snaps ecosystem and look forward to unveiling more leading snaps in 2018,” Canonical said.

As a result, the users of Ubuntu, Mint, Manjaro, Solus, Debian, and openSUSE can take advantage of this change and install Spotify packages on their machines.