Comments on: Dear lazyweb: 64-bit or not?

By: bzr status schwuk | schwuk.com

bzr status schwuk | schwuk.com — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 21:43:25 +0000

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

By: Quentin Hartman

Quentin Hartman — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 21:13:00 +0000

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.

By: bma

bma — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 21:13:00 +0000

I’ve found (with Debian, at least) that there’s no reason to use 32-bit unless you really need something like Flash.

By: Michael R. Head

Michael R. Head — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 21:13:00 +0000

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?

By: Damon

Damon — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 21:13:00 +0000

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.

By: Jayson Rowe

Jayson Rowe — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 21:13:00 +0000

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!

By: Christer Edwards

Christer Edwards — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 21:13:00 +0000

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.

By: Cory Flick

Cory Flick — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 21:13:00 +0000

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.

By: flamepanther

flamepanther — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 21:13:00 +0000

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.

By: Roger

Roger — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 21:13:00 +0000

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…