64 vs. 32
 

I am wondering if someone out there could enlighten me on the subject of 64 bit vs. 32 bit processors.
I see looking at a number of the computer stores that the 32 bit processors are on the way out.
I am using Libranet 2.8.1 soon to upgrade to 3.0 (this is a Debian distro) now wether the programs under Debian are optimized or not I have no idea.
So I was wondering if we are dealing with the manufactures trying to push the next generation before its time.
Also if I were to go with a 64 bit processor with a 32 bit program will I gain any processing advantage?.

The x86_64 processors are fast, even running 32-bit applications. Many distributions (Fedora, Madriva, SuSE included), have 64-bit versions of their distributions, and the repositories for pre-built extra software are up to speed for those distributions. I've been running an AMD64 for about a year (7x24x365) and it's been flawless (under Fedora Core's x86_64 distribution).

As far as I can see on Distrowatch, Libranet has no version for 64 bit yet. A lot of dists have 64 bit versions (Gentoo, Debian, Slackware, Suse, Mandrake, Fedora, etc) Check out linux.org and select platform 64 bit.

For MS Window I think it is too soon, but Linux has been running 64 bit for more than a year and is definitely ready.
No. And quite frankly, the difference between 64 bit and 32 bit is quite small. Noticeable improvement only comes when you encode movies and stuff like that. I feel that compiling is a little faster, but I read that this depends more on the version of gcc.
I would still go for a 64 bit processor if I were to buy one.
E

Linux has been running one 64 bit processors for alot longer then one year. It was running on 64bit UltraSPARCs since 1996 or 97.

I said more than a year... LOL
:D :D :D
But amd64 is quite new, so most programs have had to be ported to amd64.
E

Hai


AMD64 in older than Intel64(EMT). AMD was the first to introduce 64 bit for x86 archietecure(Dektop). I dont have any idea about servers.