Are there any stats on how many downloads there are for the 32-bit Windows build?
Currently Syncthing Windows Setup supports it, and we can continue that for now, but at some point I would assume that Go is going to drop support for 32-bit Windows?
Just wondering…
This surely doesn’t tell the whole truth, but it’s the third most popular download on GitHub, e.g. see the stats for v2.1.6 below.
I’d assume Windows x86 is still way more common when it comes to sheer numbers than the other, much more exotic architectures that Go supports.
On a side note, the last version of Windows x86 (LTSC 2019) that is still supported by Microsoft is going EOL in year 2029. (Edit: There is also an x86 version of LTSC 2021 but that one is going to lose support next year.
0.5% of the population
Interesting. I am wondering how many of those downloads are from folks that really should be downloading the amd64 build (or running the installer)–that would presumably be tricky to determine. I would guess that the percentage of downloads for i386 dropped once the installer became available.
Presumably Go will drop support for i386 at some point…
Yeah, some users may simply not know the difference, so they download the i386 version by mistake and just keep it running like that. 
On the other hand, I work in education and personally have seen many Windows x86 machines, with the main reason being that they had only 4 GB or even 2 GB RAM, meaning that 32-bit Windows simply ran better on them. Many of those are still in use, e.g. my classroom computer was only upgraded last month from an old Windows 7 machine to a “new” Windows 10 PC (which is still an old 7th gen Intel system…).
Would our auto update switch from i386 to amd64 on a 64bit Windows host?
Nope. The binary doesn’t look for what the underlying OS/arch is, it just updates to the same kind of binary as itself.
The minor almost-exception being macos-universal which upgrades to either macos-arm64 or macos-intel depending on what was actually running. But that is in fact two separate binaries in a bundle of sorts.
If it ain’t broken don’t fix it.
The build process is automatic. It is better to have the option for someone who might need it, rather than be cussed at.
Syncthing is for everyone, and many of us are tech-savvy and run old hardware for the sentimental value or just for the fun of it.
The statistic percentage only shows those who decided to send the stats, but I agree it gives some idea about the situation.
Here is one user: I use the Windows 32Bit version of syncthing on one of my very old (almost broken) netbooks (Intel CPU N270) which is connected to a kitchen TV and serves some audio files with a visual interface and a (very slow) webbrowser on Windows 10 (yes, it is still supported in Europe without payment).
I might retire it at the end of 2027, but I keep this setup working until Windows 10 runs out of support.
