32 vs 64 bit today?

[Mike Lovell]

On 08/13/2011 06:14 AM, S. Dale Morrey wrote:
> Hello Everyone,
>
> I just wanted to take a quick poll and ask what the current state of
> the whole 32 vs 64 bit thing is now days when it comes to distros.
> I remember a few years ago there were some major issues when going
> with a 64 bit distro and was curious to know if this is still the case
> at all or if all those kinks have been worked out by now?  Is there
> any reason given a 64 bit processor that anyone would still need to
> use a 32 bit distro?

i've been using 64 bit distros of linux (opensuse, debian, ubuntu) 
exclusively for about 5 years. things have run well. as stated in many 
other emails, most of the complaints in the past were java and flash. 
java is now available in 64 bit versions in both the open source and 
sun/oracle versions. flash works in a variety of ways now. most 
distributions will configure the 64 bit browsers to use the 32 bit plug 
in through nspluginwrapper. i don't think i've seen crash from something 
besides the very poorly written flash things on the interwebs. adobe 
also now has a native 64 bit plug-in but i don't know of any distro 
packaging it. i've been using the native one for a few months and its 
been just as good as flash on windows. and even if there are other 
applications that are closed-source and need 32 bit, you can probably 
still run them on a 64 bit distro with under 5 minutes of work.

i've also been using 64 bit windows for a while and i've only had 1 
piece of hardware that didn't have 64 bit drivers and that was only a 
problem on XP since the drivers were added to the standard set for vista 
and higher. i am disappointed that there aren't more 64 bit applications 
on windows. pretty much every app i've installed on my 64 bit windows is 
a 32 bit app and there aren't 64 bit versions readily available. big 
disappointment there.

mike