Add blog post about i686-pc-windows-gnu demotion

Author: Noratrieb

content/demoting-i686-pc-windows-gnu.md

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+path = "2025/03/12/demoting-i686-pc-windows-gnu"
+title = "Demoting i686-pc-windows-gnu to Tier 2"
+authors = ["Noratrieb"]
+aliases = []
+
+[extra]
+team = "Compiler Team"
+team_url = "https://www.rust-lang.org/governance/teams/compiler"
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+
+In Rust 1.88.0, the Tier 1 target `i686-pc-windows-gnu` will be demoted to Tier 2.
+As a Tier 2 Target, builds will continue to be distributed for both the standard library and the compiler.
+
+## Background
+
+Rust has supported Windows for a long time, with two different flavors of Windows targets: MSVC-based and GNU-based. MSVC-based targets (for example the most popular Windows target `x86_64-pc-windows-msvc`) use Microsoft’s native linker and libraries, while GNU-based targets (like `i686-pc-windows-gnu`) are built entirely from free software components like `gcc`, `ld`, and mingw-w64.
+
+The major reason to use a GNU-based toolchain instead of the native MSVC-based one is cross-compilation and licensing. `link.exe` only runs on Windows (barring Wine hacks) and requires a license for commercial usage.
+
+`x86_64-pc-windows-gnu` and `i686-pc-windows-gnu` are currently both Tier 1 with host tools.
+The [Target Tier Policy] contains more details on what this entails, but the most important part is that tests for these targets are being run on every merged PR.
+This is the highest level of support we have, and is only used for the most high value targets (the most popular Linux, Windows, and Apple targets).
+
+The `*-windows-gnu` targets currently do not have any dedicated target maintainers.
+We do not have a lot of expertise for this toolchain, and issues often aren't fixed and cause problems in CI that we have a hard time to debug.
+
+The 32-bit version of this target is especially problematic and has significantly less usage than `x86_64-pc-windows-gnu`, which is why `i686-pc-windows-gnu` is being demoted to Tier 2.
+
+## What is changed?
+
+After Rust 1.88.0, `i686-pc-windows-gnu` will now be Tier 2 with host tools.
+For users, nothing will change immediately. Builds of both the standard library and the compiler will still be distributed by the Rust Project for use via `rustup` or alternative installation methods.
+
+This does mean that in the future, this target will likely accumulate bugs faster because of the reduced testing.
+
+## Future
+
+If no maintainers are found and the `*-windows-gnu` targets continue causing problems, they may be demoted further.
+No concrete plans about this have been made yet.
+
+If you rely on the `*-windows-gnu` targets and have expertise in this area, we would be very happy to have you as a target maintainer. You can check the [Target Tier Policy] for what exactly that would entail.
+
+For more details on the motivation of the demotion, see [RFC 3771](https://rust-lang.github.io/rfcs/3771-demote-i686-pc-windows-gnu.html) which proposed this change.
+
+[Target Tier Policy]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/rustc/target-tier-policy.html