[XCSSA] 64bit distros on laptops

[xcssa@xcssa.org]

xcssa-admin@xcssa.org wrote:
> I've since switched to a 32-bit distribution on the same laptop. There 
> was too many things I couldn't do on the 64-bit distribution that I gave 
> in and switched.

There isn't really anything I "can't" do on a 64-bit distro... almost 
everything I need in 32-bit can be accomplished with the ia32 libraries 
provided in Ubuntu, and if I every really needed a 32-bit environment for 
anything, a chrooted 32-bit environment is only a debbootstrap away.  But I 
haven't done that since 2005.

That isn't to say I don't see an incentive for running a 32-bit distro... if 
you're not going to do anything that's math intensive or something that 
takes advantage of 64-bit computing, there's absolutely no reason to use a 
64-bit distro.  Just the memory savings alone of a 32 vs. 64 bit distro is 
reason enough to stay with a 32-bit kernel.  If you run wine a lot, it makes 
sense to be in 32-bit land, too.  Though, I have run recent 32-bit wine 
build successfully in a 64-bit environment using ia32 libraries, and WineX 
or whatever it's called these days works fine, too.

In summary, running a 32-bit distro means less hassles, almost everything 
will work out of the box as expected, and it uses less memory.  You can 
probably get almost everything you need working in 64-bit, but it might or 
might not work out of the box, the ia32 libraries might or might not work if 
you install 32-bit binaries, and a 32-bit chroot might not be palatable to 
you (it's like maintaining 2 distros at the same time).  64-bit binaries 
also use more memory, but you'll be way super cool compared to those with 
32-bit systems (or maybe the opposite, I don't know how it works with geeks).

A couple more notes: flash and most other plugins that work with the old 
netscape 6 will work using nspluginwrapper, but for example the java plugin 
(1.5) won't work in a 64-bit browser (x86_64 sun java does not come with a 
plugin).   However, if you download a 32-bit binary of firefox, it works 
fine with ia32 libraries and therefore all plugins.

Nick