Jean-Héon™ announces that version 3.8 of Joystie™, scheduled for December 2025, will be the last version compatible with 32-bit systems (Windows and Linux).

Starting in February 2026, with the release of Joystie™ 3.10, the software will only be available in 64-bit.

Only the 32-bit versions of Joystie™ on Linux ARM and Android will continue to be supported as long as the majority of mobile devices still run on the armeabi-v7a architecture.

This change is due to several factors:

- The end of support for Windows 10, which is the last version of Windows to offer a 32-bit version. Since Windows 11 only offers a 64-bit version, continuing to develop 32-bit versions of Windows is no longer worthwhile. Although LTSC versions of Windows 10 are still supported in 2027 and 2032 depending on the version, they represent only a small number of users and are primarily intended for businesses and machines requiring less maintenance, such as vending machines and medical devices. 

- The number of Linux distributions offering a 32-bit version is dwindling. Most parent distributions like Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE, and Solus have dropped 32-bit support. Debian is preparing to end 32-bit support in 2028 with the end of support for the Bookworm LTS version. Even though Arch Linux offers a 32-bit version, its derivative distributions like Manjaro, SteamOS, and CachyOS are only available in 64-bit versions.

Most software publishers and developers are gradually abandoning 32-bit support. Valve will drop support for Steam on 32-bit Windows PCs in January 2026, and Mozilla recently discontinued the 32-bit version of Firefox. According to statistics from Mozilla and Valve, the number of people still using 32-bit versions represents a drop in the ocean compared to the combined total of 32-bit and 64-bit users.

-This allows Jean-Héon™ to focus on the 64-bit ports of Joystie™ for Windows and Linux and to quickly deploy new updates, reducing the number of ports from 9 to 7 (Windows x86_64, Windows ARM64, Linux x86_64, Linux ARM32, Linux ARM64, macOS, and Android).

-Compatible machines are older and have limited memory, and the 32-bit versions may struggle with future versions of Joystie™ that will add more features.

We advise our customers using Joystie™ to migrate to a 64-bit system to benefit from the latest Joystie™ updates.

The 32-bit era is slowly but surely coming to an end, and it's time for Joystie™ to embrace the 64-bit future.