On Jan 16, 2016 6:23 PM, "Zbigniew Jędrzejewski-Szmek" <zbyszek@in.waw.pl> wrote:
>
> On Sat, Jan 16, 2016 at 05:09:47PM -0500, Josh Boyer wrote:
> > On Jan 16, 2016 11:04 AM, "Zbigniew Jędrzejewski-Szmek" <zbyszek@in.waw.pl>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > > > I'm looking at the numbers I have. From the release of Fedora 21 until
> > > > F22 release, 23% of all ISO "pings" are for i686. (Less than 1% are
> > > >
> > > > The 15% 32-bit comes from a different data source: package update
> > > > connections (again, pings, really).
> > >
> > > The exact number isn't terribly important. Either number supports my
> > > point: dropping i686 Workstations will _significantly_ reduce our
> > > installation base.
> > >
> > > I know that it's hard to find volunteers to work on 32bit. I myself
> > > haven't used a non-arm 32bit machine in years. But we'd have to work
> > > a lot to increase the user base by 15% to make up this loss.
> >
> > Why?
>
> Why would we want to have more users in general?
> Why they would go away if we stop supporting their hardware?
> Why it will be hard to replace them?
>
> Or more narrowly, why we would want to have this specific group of users?
>
> I'm not sure what question you are asking, one of those, or maybe
> something completely different. The first three have obvious answers,
> and to anwer the fourth: I think it matches Fedora's foundations, and
> is an investment for the future. We strengthen our community by
> supporting people who for one reason or another are using old hardware.
> I presume that it's not because they want to, but because they don't
> have resources. At some point they will upgrade, and maybe get better
> internet access, and hopefully become fully contributing  members of the
> community. "Freedom" and "friends".

Well said.  Thank you.

josh