LibreOffice Will No Longer Provide 32-bit Linux Binaries

With the announcement of LibreOffice 6.3 Beta 1, the open source office suite has stopped providing 32-bit binaries for the Linux platform although 32-bit compatibility has not yet been removed from the project's codebase.

"Distro vendors or anyone running a more current 32-bit Linux system can still create 32-bit versions of LibreOffice, as developers have not in any way removed 32-bit compatibility from the source code." as The Document Foundation's Italo Vignoli told BleepingComputer.

LibreOffice 32-bit support still available

This decision is caused by the dwindling number of users downloading the 32-bit Linux distribution-neutral binaries which translates into not being worth testing, compiling, maintaining, and distributing them. "So, we are ending the provision of  32-bit binaries, but NOT 32-bit support as a whole," said Vignoli.

While 32-bit Linux binaries will no longer be available for stable and pre-release LibreOffice versions, users will still be able to get them via their distro's repositories "which are usually compiled against the distro's version of the various external libraries."

When asked if the 32-bit Windows LibreOffice binaries will share the fate of the Linux ones, Vignoli said that this will not happen in the foreseeable future although "if downloads of Windows 32-bit binaries from TDF mirror servers drop to the same very low number as Linux 32-bit packages, we will reconsider the situation."

Our community and certified developers are busy crafting LibreOffice 6.3, which is due to be released in early August! The first beta snapshot is now available, so if you want to help us test it and report any bugs before the final release, see here: https://t.co/GZc9coa769 pic.twitter.com/JVFeqrbqeP

— LibreOffice (@libreoffice) June 4, 2019

LibreOffice 6.3 Beta 1 pre-release

"LibreOffice 6.3 will be released as final in mid August, 2019, being LibreOffice 6.3 Beta1 the second pre-release since the development of version 6.3 started in mid November, 2018," says the announcement.

Also, "Since LibreOffice 6.3 Alpha1, 683 commits have been submitted to the code repository and 141 bugs have been set to FIXED in Bugzilla."

Users can download LibreOffice 6.3 Beta 1 from here, for the Linux, MacOS, and Windows platforms, with the Beta installable next to the version already present on their systems.