64-bit has been solid for some time. It was not that long ago when people wondered if there would ever be a justification to move from 16-bit to that "untried and unstable" 32-bit architecture.

Well, I accidentally added one extra zero to 1000%.
Anyway, why else could I want to migrate? If there are no benefits from new number of bits - then migrating to 64bit "just to be 64bit" is a waste of time. It will probably have to wait until 8gb of RAM will be common minimum system requirements. Notice that by that time I can probably get my 1000% improvement in productivity with no problems.

Haven't really thought about 64bit. All my machines but one are 64 bit, all running 32 bit software. I'll probably switch when a 64bit cd is in my hand when I have to re-install. Gonna be a while though, none of my linux systems have not crashed in years while each computer has had winblows installed at least 3 times each .

lol, well, ok, but still I don't think 1000% is feasible either, 100 - 200 % is about all you'll ever get over 32-bit, but those only in special cases such as scientific / mathematical purposes.

But, if programmers start programming specifically for 64-bit and correctly use all SIMD registers, you'll have great benefits for multimedia apps and the like.

Must be over a year ago now, but I can't see that optio.... Oh wait, I see what happened there. ;->

When I get a new computer, my last one held on for 13 years before being replaced: 386-20 to Pentium 4, skipped all the 486s,Pentium 1,2,3 etc, so at this rate it'll be 2025 and we'll be using 128 bits. All right, maybe next year, the economy needs a stimulus.

Well, people were already using 128bits in Sega Dreamcast.

To even get 100%, it will almost certainly be something that needs the SIMD extensions; that's more likely to be something like video processing than strictly scientific, but you can come up with something in the DSP area that would use these instructions, I'm just not sure that anyone has. In more normal usage situations, from +5 to +20 % down to -15 are more likely; at least the instruction set improvements have offset the loss of performance from 64 bits somewhat.

(An exception; given that Intel did their usual, slightly disreputable, thing of not including their virtualisation acceleration instructions in the 64 bit inst set of the Core processors, while including them in the 32 bit version - can you believe that! that way round doesn't make any sense; why would virt be more significant to a 32 bit user than a 64 bit one - then virtualisation doesn't work as quickly under 64 bit as 32 until you get to Nehalem. And I don't have numbers on how much impact that has on performance. Of course this doesn't apply to AMD, so in that sense it may depend on whose name is on the processor).

I think it will probably be at the next upgrade or two (6 - 12 months), because I think by then I'll get a 64-bit-only CD and the 'proprietary software' problem will be gone (I guess). BTW, I notice that my laptop is running the PAE kernel; I didn't do anything to request that and it only has 1 G of ram, so I don't really know how that came about, but it hasn't caused a problem, yet, so I haven't had any reason to change it.

wrong choices - even the 6 months ago !

I forgot when I migrated to 64bit - something like 3-4 years ago or evenb earlier, at the VERY beginning of progress to 64bit. opensuse fully supported 64bit very early by offering full dist on CD / DVD for both 32 AND 64 bit. hence move was simple.
my first x86_64 was an acer ferrari 4000 - just when that model cam out first.
Since then ALL my unites are x86_64, including my 3 servers.

I switched to 64-bit (Debian) about a year or so but was totally unsatisfied with the support especially from the commercial software companies, namely Skype, sun and it's java-plugin desaster (shame, shame and shame on you!) and lacking browser flash support.
Due to the perfect working bigmem support I am happy with 32 bit again.

There's now a 64-bit java plugin and adobe flash plugin.

Skype works through 32-bit emulation quite easily in most cases (use the static binary).

More like three years ago.

Thank you for that information.
Yes I knew about it, but that where just a few examples. Everything is possible in Linux, but I want to work WITH that system and not FOR it :-)

I don't get the point. There's no extra effort. Just delete from your mind the fact that it's a 64 bits OS. Flash is equally buggy in 64 and 32 bits, by the way. It just depends on the version of the plugin and the version of the browser, some combos do work, some others do not. In any case, flash ALWAYS eats cpu like mad. I justs use flashblock and use it when strictly needed.

There's a bit of psychological terror behind this all. People just see a 64 and automatically start to think that every single problem they experience is due to that.

I'll probably change around midnight on 19 Jan 2038, I tend to put things off til the last minute.