Created attachment 736171 [details]
www.opensuse.org

There have been several discussions about Tumbleweed remaining on Firefox 52
ESR due to Tumbleweed's official support of i586.

For example:

https://www.reddit.com/r/openSUSE/comments/6sdbt8/why_the_hell_firefox_in_tumbleweed_is_so_much_out/

https://www.reddit.com/r/openSUSE/comments/6hnx37/is_tumbleweed_going_to_hang_back_on_updating/

In my view (and the majority view as far as I can tell) it makes little sense
to have a rolling distribution comprising the latest and greatest software,
with the limitation that the software must work on decades old hardware.  If
support for i586 must be maintained for those who require it, it would be a lot
more natural to do so in Leap.  For context, the descriptions below are taken
from the very top of www.opensuse.org:

Tumbleweed: Get the newest Linux packages with our rolling release. Fast!
Integrated! Stabilized! Tested!

Leap: Get the most complete Linux distribution with openSUSE���s latest
regular-release version!

The current policy of holding back "the newest Linux packages" in Tumbleweed in
order to have Tumbleweed be more "complete" in its support of i586 just appears
totally backwards and confused.  Especially when the software being held back
is as central to today's computing experience as a web browser.

Support for Firefox 52 ESR will end in June 2018, so it's only a matter of
months before i586 support will need to be dropped anyway.  Having a Tumbleweed
identity crisis over i586 support will only hurt the distribution in the long
run; supporting older hardware really should have been for Leap.

It's definitely a policy decision that will impact Tumbleweed's future, and I'm
not sure how these decisions typically are made.  I've filed this report in
hopes of starting the discussion amongst the powers that be.  I'm casting my
vote for updating to Firefox 55 as soon as possible as this is the only choice
consistent with Tumbleweed's raison d'��tre.