Hi, Arch Linux users, we are pleased to inform you that the i686 architecture is not going to be dropped from Arch Linux. It all was part of an April Fools joke, in which all the developers and the forum moderators played a big part.
Interestingly, this joke actually did some good. Some of our users discovered that they were, in fact, running 64-bit processors, and many of them switched to the Arch Linux 64-bit version. We encourage anyone who already switched to keep using the 64-bit version, to continue contributing to the architecture and encourage support from other major software vendors.
A prime example of a vendor giving in to the demands of the 64-bit community is Adobe. They've recently added 64-bit Linux support to the flash plug-in, for which we thank them.
Sorry for any inconvenience this joke may have caused, but how can we resist a prank on the 1st of April?