<p>I know it&#x27;s optional for now. But now that the knob is there, it&#x27;s only a matter of time until someone finds a way to effectively mandate that it be turned even on other people&#x27;s computers.

<p>It&#x27;s an optional thing controlled by a kernel parameter you pass only at boot time. The reality is a modern server, where most Linux installations are, is going to be running only 64-bit processes; there should be no 32-bit processes present. In fact, the presence of one may indicate a compromised (32-bit malware&#x2F;botnet stub) server!<p>On the desktop, it&#x27;s not like it&#x27;ll be enabled by default, so you can still run 32-bit apps without issue such as Steam and Windows applications via WINE.

<p>I wish this kind of thing would be rejected outright. There&#x27;s no reason to disable useful functionality like this when it doesn&#x27;t even result in getting to remove any code.

x86: Disable running 32bit processes if ia32_disabled is passed