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From a land of hills and water…

1. Quentin Hartman 11.25.07 / 9pm

   My rule of thumb is to go 32-bit unless you have a pressing reason to go 64. Life is just generally easier on 32-bit, though 64 has gotten good enough that it’s livable for most folks. It just takes a little more effort is all. Just to provide a random anecdotal datapoint, all my "desktop" systems are 32-bit, and all the servers I take care of are 64.
2. bma 11.25.07 / 9pm

   I’ve found (with Debian, at least) that there’s no reason to use 32-bit unless you really need something like Flash.
3. Michael R. Head 11.25.07 / 9pm

   64 bit is continually improving (flash is now autowrapped in 7.10, so it works without much headache at all), but the Java plugin still has a ways to come (probably Java7 will finally resolve this). Other than that, most programs will work or can be made to work, since 32 bit apps load and run as long as the 32 versions of the libraries they depend on are installed, too (ia32-* packages help here). There also seem to be few benefits to running in 64bit mode. Most apps run about the same, and power consumption is the same if not worse than 32bit.

   In short, 64bit is more doable on the desktop than it has been in the past, but why bother with it?
4. Damon 11.25.07 / 9pm

   I have an Athlon64 X2 (not ideal for a laptop), and the 64-bit version of Ubuntu has not failed me at all. While all other repo’s (Linux Mint, Mediubuntu, and a bunch of others) have worked fine, Ubuntustudio’s repo’s where the only problem. No big deal, because that repo has meta-packages of the software that I can get from all of the other repo’s (as of gutsy’s release, Ubuntu Studio is supposed to has 64-bit support).

   That said, you have a 64-bit CPU, so take advantage of it. Let the 32-bit CPU users wish what could be. Enjoy the 64-bit bliss.
5. Jayson Rowe 11.25.07 / 9pm

   I wouldn’t even consider running a 32 bit OS on a 64 bit processor…any more.

   There was a time when trying to run a 64 bit Distro was a big pain in the back end, but things are much smoother now, and you will find everything will better.

   Give it a shot and see, you won’t go back…I promise!
6. Christer Edwards 11.25.07 / 9pm

   I’ve had this discussion over and over again recently with many of my co-workers. We’re in an all Linux shop and a lot of them seem to be running 64bit. I finally caved to their pressure and have installed 64bit. My thoughts and why…

   1) I really don’t see any immediate benefit in 64bit. The machine is not blazingly fast and I don’t see a big performance increase, but everything does work–I’d say about the same.

   2) I finally have switched on principle. 64bit will never improve if none of us run it and report issues. If the user base for 64bit were very few it will not get the attention that it needs for widespread adoption. If you’re confident in your Ubuntu abilities I’d say switch over and help improve it. So far, again, I have not had any show-stopper issues so I’d say you’re probably safe.
7. Cory Flick 11.25.07 / 9pm

   Running Ubuntu 7.10 x86-64, have had absolutely no issues, on an HP dv6000 laptop with AMD Turion64×2.

   Don’t have Java installed yet, as I haven’t needed it yet. Flash works fine, videos play fine, music files work just fine, everything else works as it should. That it’s easy to install 32bit libraries helps for the occasional odd program ( Postal2 in my case ).

   I strongly believe more *nix users should run 64bit versions of their distros — let’s discover and report some bugs, so the devs can keep polishing.
8. flamepanther 11.25.07 / 9pm

   Older versions of Ubuntu had a few minor snags (Flash) when trying to go 64-bit. Gutsy has been perfect. Even Flash installed from the repos and worked automatically for me, with no need to configure a wrapper for it.
9. Roger 11.25.07 / 9pm

   64 bit. Practically all of the machines we have at work (desktops and servers alike) now are running 64 bit opensuse no bother.

   If it don’t work the way you want then you can always change back…
10. 'Techie' Jim 11.25.07 / 9pm

    I had 64-bit at home for a while but put 32-bit back on simply because I use or require Flash and Java applets. Flash does not work very well in 64-bit with nspluginwrapper (let alone on it’s own), and 64-bit Java applet plugin is still nonexistant. You can install the 32-bit Firefox and plugins under 64-bit linux but it’s a bit of a pain. If you don’t require Flash or Java plugins, most other things work well. The only other major issue I have noticed is that there are lacking some video decoders, but for some it isn’t an issue.
11. JW 11.25.07 / 9pm

    I’ll vote with the rest who say that as long as you don’t need the flash or java plugins, 64-bit is quite livable. I have "firefox32" installed, and use that for the times that I really need either one of those plugins. Otherwise, my music playing , cd ripping/burning, finance, browsing, email, writing, and cosmetic fiddling are absolutely no different from 32 bit (well… with the obvious performance increase in the ripping/burning area).

    I have not tried wine or crossover yet to see how that works. So perhaps if there are any "windows" applications you need to run under either of those might need a test drive.

    I figure that the more I use it and weigh in as a statistic, the sooner 64 bit will be more widely supported. It is pretty ignorant (IMO) of companies (like Adobe and Sun) not to adopt it because … it’s 64 bit!
12. homerhomer 11.25.07 / 9pm

    Yes, you should go with the upgrade. I have recently upgraded my laptop and desktop to 64 Gutsy and have been very happy with everything, except java.

    Java works but I had to install an 64bit alpha call Icetea
    If you check the ubuntu forums there is a 3rd part repo out there that has a newer version that work quite well

    Other than that it’s been a nice little speed up.
13. sil 11.25.07 / 9pm

    My machine is a 64-bit AMD Turion (HP Pavilion dv5000), running 64-bit gobuntu, and I’ve not had a single problem with it. Gnash does youtube now, which is all I ever used Flash for anyway
14. Michael Alan Dorman 11.25.07 / 9pm

    Going 64-bit is going to more-or-less halve your effective memory.

    On a machine like a laptop with (relatively) little memory and a (relatively) slow HD, that memory can be better used for caching.

    Stick with 32 unless you have a compelling reason.
15. wolfger 11.25.07 / 9pm

    When I first went to a 64 bit CPU (seems like ages ago), I was bound and determined to run a 64-bit OS. I did so, on Gentoo, which seemed to have a leg up on the other distros in 64-bit-ness. It was a pain in the neck, and I wound up installing a lot of 32-bit apps (mplayer, to use the 32-bit proprietary codecs; firefox, to use java and flash; cedega, to play games). Eventually (inevitably?) my system broke. It wasn’t unrepairable per se, but I decided making a fresh start made more sense. I went back to 32-bit and was much happier. Since then, I’ve tried (in recent months) 64-bit versions of Sabayon, Mepis (older Debian based and newer Dapper based), and finally Ubuntu Feisty. Still not satisfied. Simply put, I don’t see any advantage that makes it worth the extra headache. And I still think Gentoo is the best system to go 64-bit on. Unless they’ve dis-improved. For my money, 32-bit Gutsy is where I’ll be staying for a while.
16. Brian 11.25.07 / 9pm

    I ran 64-bit Ubuntu for the last 14 months and this weekend I just switched back to 32-bit Ubuntu. I have a nice dual-core PC (Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 processor) but my primary motivator was the ability to use my full 4 GB of RAM. Things like nspluginwrapper in 7.10 make the experience much better but it still freezes and hangs a good bit and the lack of Java support was also annoying. Instead I just used the Ubuntu server kernel and now I get my 4 GB of RAM back No restricted modules pkg for the server kernel but using Alberto Milone’s Envy nets me 3D effects again.

    It’s much better than it was, but it’s not quite there yet. If you don’t mind the occasional hassle, then go for it. I just got tired of having to find workarounds for popular things.
17. cpradio 11.25.07 / 9pm

    I have been running 64 bit for close to three years. I struggled with it at the beginning due to lack of support, which is actually why I switched to Ubuntu (or Kubuntu rather) from Debian. Debain kept promising a 64 bit release, but it was continuously pushed back, Ubuntu however had a spot on release schedule and was based on the Debian architecture (bonus points for that).

    Earlier adoption with Ubuntu and 64 bit was extremely experimental, but that is why I went ahead with it. I wanted to be forced to fix problems, as it is a great way to learn the operating system and its internals. Tweaking and playing with the operating system is exactly why I love Linux. I know I can try anything I want, and when I break it, I can just re-install and go again leaving my home partition intact.

    64bit has grown immensely since I began tinkering with it. I am proud to say I have only had two or three crashes recently (all of which I can’t recreate on my own actions, so it has to be a weird combination of events), but I am beginning to believe it deals with one of my hard drives going bad.

    Some quick pointers have already been mentioned, which is the poor support for Java in 64 bit, but Ubuntu can’t be entirely blamed there. Another would be that not all applications have been converted (this can be partially blamed on Ubuntu, but for the majority the blame lies on the project developers, seriously, they just need someone to rebuild them under a 64 bit architecture and potentially fix any compile errors). But overall, I do not have any complaints with Gutsy Gibbon (7.10). The issues with flash were by far the worst issue I had with the previous versions, it was just an annoyance.

    I honestly hope you go the 64 bit direction. You won’t see a ton of performance gain, but you will find it runs just as well, I primarily blame this on the lack of 64 bit applications, but I could be wrong.
18. tim 11.25.07 / 9pm

    You already have a dual boot setup, right? So wipe Vista, install 64 bit Gutsy, and test drive it side by side with your existing 32 bit installation. I tried 64 bit a year ago on my HP laptop and it wasn’t quite ready for everyday usage, IMO. Let us know what your experience with it is!
19. insulae 11.25.07 / 9pm

    in my new laptop a Compaq Presario V3415LA don’t work in 32bits (even with FreeBSD), is crashing everytime.
    With ubuntu in 64bits work perfectly don’t crashing anymore :D.
20. davmor2 11.25.07 / 9pm

    64 bit what the hell is the point of a 64bit arch if your not going to use half of it
21. bzr status schwuk | schwuk.com 9.13.08 / 9pm

    [...] November I pondered moving to 64-bit. Last week after a few stability and performance problems (entirely [...]

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