A Slashdot post yesterday pointed to a worrying thread on the Ubuntu mailing list archive about dropping 32-bit support from Ubuntu. The Ubuntu thread is here:
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2016-June/039420.html
It is not 100% clear to me what they are considering - they mention dropping 32-bit .isos and also ceasing to support users who want to run 32-bit apps (at least unless the app is packaged in a container alongside all of the necessary libraries). Their thought is to do this in a couple of years, with Ubuntu 18.10:
18.10+: * Stop providing i386 port * Run legacy i386 only application in snaps / containers / virtual machines
Disturbingly, no one on the Ubuntu thread ever mentions Wine. Oddly there is discussion about IoT applications which might need 32-bit libraries and a proposal to continue building select libs for those things, but maybe minus the graphics stack :-(. In the Slashdot post someone at least mentions Wine, but the little discussion that prompted was seemingly in error until Francois came along to correct them.
I think Wine should be aware of the issue and make some noise about it before distros grow attached to the idea of ceasing to build 32-bit libraries. I will probably post to the Ubuntu thread to at least mention Wine, unless someone here is involved in that community and thinks they can do a better job. The more distros hear from the Wine community about the value of 32-bit libraries, the better. It might be that they will conclude on their own that users need them to continue building 32-bit libraries, but I don't know that we can trust distros not to break things if we don't speak up.