[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

Believe me, I tried pulling in the 32-bit Firefox but had some issue with a 
dependency I couldn't resolve using yum or google. I didn't have the time to 
figure out the 32-bit libraries in Fedora, so I took it as far as I could 
and ended up switching to my current distro.

I look forward to seeing all the codecs moved to 64-bit. Once that starts 
falling into place, I will switch back.

Enjoy!
Tom King

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