Ok so what all can I not get for 64 bit Linux systems?
 

I just learned that Java & Flash don't work on 64 bit Linux systems.

What else out there only works for 32 bit Linux systems?

This stinks to high heaven.

Firefox browser is a little funky with Ubuntu x64. I have a Ubuntu 6.06 box with Firefox 64-bit installed, but the Java does not work properly with it. The only way to get it to work was to downgrade and instlal firefox 32-bit. After the downgrade, everything worked fine. Not sure why Ubuntu x64 didn't just give us Firefox 32-bit so that Java works properly.

win32codecs, those won't work either. Or 32 bit mplayerplug-in for that matter. Not that it matters because those are hardly required any more; I have hundreds of movie files (avi/mpeg/wmv/...) and only one won't play on a 64 bit system.

So the solution is to install Firefox 32 bit. Got it. I have Fedora. I wonder if I can yum it in somehow?

Well, if you've got Fedora, you may just as well install nspluginwrapper, which makes flash, acroread and a few others accessible to 64 bit firefox. Also, it's not extremely difficult getting java to work on Fedora considering it's a multiarch system.

Virtualbox, VMware...
Thousands of Projects in alpha and beta state that already have deb's don't necessarily have 64bit debs also.

You could use a biarch distro and install 32 bit versions of programs like Firefox. SuSE for example, installs the 32 bit version by default to avoid plugin problems.

The easiest alternative is simply to use a 32 bit installation. As I understand it there are few applications for which 64 bit software actually makes much difference.

That is a serious overstatement. Both the programs you mention have Debian packages. While some cutting edge video streaming apps won't run on 32-bit Linux, and a few more won't run on 64-bit, it really isn't that big a deal unless YouTube, and sites like cbs.com are really important to you.

64-bit computing is the wave of the future, and many programs work significantly faster. Furthermore, since developers are more and more working on 64-bit systems, it's becoming more common for 64-bit applications to be released ahead of their 32-bit counterparts. Hardware drivers are particularly equivalent or surpassing those for 32-bit systems.

As has been mentioned several times, their are several distros which make running 32-bit apps on 64-bit OSes quite simple. I think Fedora is one.

Oh, you're right... Either I missed it, or they only have them for less than a year, because that's the last time I tried to install a 64 bit distro.
And yes, you can chroot and whatnot, but unless you do hardcore audio and video coding there won't be much - if any improvement at all. I have tried a couple of times. Was never worth it. I ran into stuff that didn't run natively constantly. And a lot of stuff that worked was buggy.
No doubt that it's the way of the future, but I want my distribution to work now... I don't want to read through a tutorial just to install flash! I did get flash to run on 64 bit, but it's unnecessarily complicated...


Add skype to the list.

As complicated as ...
# aptitude install flashplugin-nonfree
... can be.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/64-bit#32_vs_64_bit
might be worth reading..(the whole story, not just that part)

My own thoughts about this matter are that right now 64-bit machines/operating systems/software aren't so good for the average desktop end-user that it would be sensible to pay for them. I'll rather wait for some years and see how it goes, and what other new things are about to come (not just cpus for example). Since many day-to-day things don't work well enough, equally well or notably better in 64-bit environments than in 32-bit environments, I consider it a waste of time and money to move to that area yet.

It can be as complicated as installing firefox and flash9 in a 32 bit chroot to get it to run at a usable speed (youtube videos, interactive stuff)

If there's a 64 bit version of flash9 in the repos - alright then. Maybe it all magically resolved in the past 12 months.

I would challenge you to name more than one or two marginal programs that work better in 32-bit than 64-bit. The only thing I know of is a Mozilla java plugin. For internet java applets, I'm forced to use Konqueror. Life is tough.

Money? You can hardly buy a 32-bit computer anymore, and the last time I checked, 64-bit OSes cost the same as 32-bit. Zero.

12 months is an eternity in data processing development terms.

You are playing the 64 bit advocat, and I have to tell you that you can install java, or really any 32 bit program on a 64 bit system... There definitely is no need to run Konqueror. But since you obviously think it's less of a hassle just to deal with Konqueror as a web browser than setting it up for firefox - I think it's still not for me yet. I mean come-on Java? It doesn't get much more basic than that.