Won't 64-bit Wine still be able to run 32-bit programs as well?
Currently it doesn't: 32-bit wine is a different executable that needs a full Linux 32-bit library dependency tree.
To my knowledge that was the end result of the whole "continuing 32-bit support on Linux" announcement (which they sort of backtracked on and reworded), although maybe it's different specifically for Wine, I dunno.
Ohh did Ubuntu backtrack on this? That's great! I'm currently stuck with a distribution that makes it virtually impossible to install 32-bit libraries, but hopefully that's just an exception. My feeling was that 32-bit x86 was as good as dead, except for emulation of old games (which is arguably a good reason to keep supporting it, but okay).
I've always liked sticking with 32-bit because 64-bit is overkill and the latter systems have always been able to run the former anyway, making it easier to manage all my projects. Once there are multiple distributions things get really annoying and error-prone. I'd have to update a lot of stuff just to be able to add 64-bit support :/
Yes I understand this very well.