[$] The current state of Linux architecture support

There have been several recent announcements about Linux distributions changing
the list of architectures they support, or adjusting how they build binaries for
some versions of those architectures.
Ubuntu introduced architecture variants, Fedora
considered dropping support for i686 but
reversed course after some pushback, and Debian developers

have discussed raising its architecture baseline for the upcoming

Debian 14
('forky').
Linux supports a large number of architectures, and it's not always
clear where or by whom they are used.
With increasing concerns about diminishing support for legacy
architectures, it's a good time to look at the overall state of architecture
support on Linux.