Hi I have a couple questions regarding 64bit. When I install openSUSE 11.4 will it install 64bit on its own. Or does it matter?

Also, if it does will i need to always install the 64bit arch programs when install stuff? Or does that not matter?

Thanks
Paul

Check the SUSE site. There's usually a 32 bit and 64 bit version available for most Distros these days.
I think you can install either 32 bit or 64 bit programs but updates would be 64 bit for the 64 bit Distro.

My

Play Bonny!

Note that not all (non-OS) SW is avail as 64 bit, but that doesn't matter. The OS should cope. In RH based systems it's called 'multi-lib' ie the 64 bit OS has both 64 & 32 bit libs and uses whichever is reqd for each prog.
I would guess SUSE uses the same idea, possibly with a different name.

HTH

Ok, I think it says 32 and 64 but I'm going to check it out.

What's the advantages of running 64bit? Why do people choose to run it? I've heard that it really only boils down to recognized memory amounts.

By the way
Compaq
2 gigs
Athlon II 360p dual core
Ati 4250 graphics

Thanks

As far as RAM goes, that's about right; you can easily address locations > 4GB with 64 bit. A 32 bit kernel can have the PAE extension which does the same thing, but these days the default chip tends to be 64 bit, so go with that.
It won't usually make your progs faster except for a few exceptions eg a large DB and/or large num calcs.
You may find this worth a look http://www.redhat.com/rhel/compare/

Hi -
It was basically a 16-bit world in the 1980's (through DOS and Windows 3), and it's basically been a 32-bit world since the mid-90's. But we're definitely rushing into a 64-bit future.

So....
1) In general, there's seldom any advantage in installing 64 bit apps. For the most part, just install the 32-bit versions.

2) In general, there's EVERY reason to install the 64-bit version of the OS. Just make sure you also install the 32-bit runtime libraries (along with their 64-bit counterparts).

You'll thank yourself for installing the 64-bit OS the first time you want to try something serious with VMWare, Oracle or JBoss, for example.

'Hope that helps .. PSM

Thanks guys. That's exactly the input I was looking to get. Well explained