I can’t find a live cd iso file for lubuntu 32-bit any more -which used to be easy in the past. The bootable iso i downloaded today was permanent installation only. I hope live distros are still available. Thank you for any help.
It has been a while since I downloaded the last 32 bit Lubuntu (18.04.4) version but it was still a live version and you still had the choice of trying Lubuntu or installing it. You are aware that the decision was made to no longer support 32 bit machines after the 18.04 release (which will be supported until April 2021). That was a change that we knew was coming and while it may sadden some of us the move had to be made sooner or later because of limited Team resources to develop and maintain existing versions.
https://lubuntu.me/downloads/ still has the 32 bit Lubuntu 18.04.5 available for download which I believe is a live CD image.
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The last available Live edition of Lubuntu was 18.04 and its point releases (including .5). That ISO is a Live version of the ISO.
There are no other later versions of Lubuntu (or Ubuntu for that matter) that have 32bit ISOs that are live environments or installers.
32bit machines (x86 / i386 infra) are pretty much no longer supported by major distros like Ubuntu (and its variants), etc. so if you are still rolling old 32bit machines you probably should consider replacing those machines with 64bit-capable machines (which is kind of the standard now).
There are other options to replacing 32 bit machines with 64 bit machines. Several distros still offer support for them such as Mint 19.3 which is supported until 2023. And there are others that still support 32 bit to include, Debian, Bodhi, Sparky Linux, AntiX, MX Linux, etc. Granted the days of 32 bit machines are numbered but Granny doesn’t have to buy a new one just yet. 
We deal with a great many older machines at our LUG installation festivals and Lubuntu used to be our go to distro for the 32 bit machines. However, we have had to expand our comfort zone to get these machines to work in Linux for individuals who for one reason or another cannot afford a new machine. Of course Lubuntu is still our go to distro for users who want a light distro and have the 64 bit machines.
I will point out that as this is a Discourse for Lubuntu, my answers will always be Lubuntu specific 
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Say what, now? Have they made some decision to drop it in the near future? Normally, I would recommend Debian for 32 bit folks.
Last i heard they’re still pondering it internally at their councils, no decision made yet but maybe I mistyped because ERR:NotEnoughCoffee (blame Simon for it)
If you’ve got links to any of that discussion, I’d sure like to see it. FWIW, too, even unofficial ports are fairly well supported in Debian, so even if the official support died, it may still live on quite well.
This has already been stated, but Lubuntu’s last 32-bit or x86/i386 release was in 2020-August, which wasn’t that long ago.
https://lubuntu.me/bionic-5-released/
At this time, this will be the last planned 18.04 release for Lubuntu, thus also making it both the last LXDE release as well as the last i386 release.
I tested it using boxes as old as from 2003 (inc. pentium M, pentium 4, and even a really old celeron).
I had two machines (really old pentium M laptops) that had issues with the HWE software stack ((5.4 kernel & kernel modules [drivers]) and performed much better with the GA kernel (ie. 18.04 or 18.04.1 media used to install & upgrade post-install is easiest)) but they those boxes have issues with any OS running a newer than 5.3 kernel I believe).
Debian 10 works well on those boxes too (as it uses an older 4.9 kernel); though to be honest Lubuntu 18.04 performed better on two older boxes than Debian Buster/10 in my limited testing; Debian & Lubuntu similar for the others.
Whilst I did installs using the 18.04.5 media, on most boxes my testing was only live.
The alternate media is not live, as it was specifically built to avoid this, as boxes with <768MB of RAM struggle running the live system plus running ubiquity (installer used by Lubuntu 18.04), so this media does not run live and uses the debian installer which uses less RAM. That image is very old having not been rebuilt since 2018-April (I personally can’t imagine people using machines with less than 1GB of ram so can’t see it being needed anyway)
https://lubuntu.me/downloads/
or to see what is available directly
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