64 bit on Linux
 

Hi.

I am going to buy a AMD Athlon 64 -processor, so I want to make some things clear first.

I got Slackware-current and a self-compiled kernel (Linux 2.6.16). Do I just need to compile the kernel to use 64-bit? Do I need packages that are compiled for x86_64 or can I use the i486 packages which comes with Slackware?

I heard there are problems with Java in 64-bit Linux. Is this true?

Can I still use 64-bit processor in a 32-bit environment? How?

Yes to all of your questions.

The 64-bit version of Sun's Jave as of yet does not have the libjavaplugin_oji.so, which means no browser java plugin is available. No biggie.... just use the 32-bit browser(s). The 64-bit OS will run any 32-bit application as long as the required libs are present.

A 64-bit system is quite happy to load and use a 32-bit OS also. Just install the OS of your choice (32 or 64-bit).

Dunno if Slackers use KDE or not, but Konqueror and some other browsers work fine without the Java plugin.

as of current, the only real benefit from going to a 64 bit os/processor is to leverage systems with 4 GB of ram or more.

I cannot find any other benefit and support is not there yet for 64bit.

On a 64 bit platform, you will need 32bit browser and a least one media player (mplayer). Outside of that I have no problems.