advice needed! Should I choose 32bit or 64bit?
 

As 64bits system, it can support more memories but less software support it than 32bit, that's what I googled.

But I think Slackware is different, it has more strict rule for importing software, so maybe the support problem is not exist here?

My Intel core2 computer support 64bit, should I install Slackware 32 or 64?

thanks
jazzi

The short answer is: Choose 64 bit Linux.

The long answer is: If you have greater than 4GB of RAM, it may be beneficial to choose 64 bit. 64 bit may also be able to make more efficient use of the CPU.

Since the various packages for Slackware may be compiled as easily for 32 or 64 bit, you won't be losing out on any software if you choose one over the other.

Good luck!

Is that mean if I have the source code I can compile a 64 bit by myself and don't have to change the code?

In case above assumption is right, then close-source or private software will be a problem if it has no 64bit version, right?

Yeah, if you're compiling from source, the program will build fine on a 64-bit machine. You could change CFLAGS or some other compile time parameter, but that's up to you. Slackware usually compiles 64-bit packages with the "-O2 fPIC" flag.

Binary-only or libraries that have been built specifically for 32-bit arch will not run on slackware64. But most of the necessary proprietary, closed-source software are available in 64-bit, so you needn't worry too much.

If you install multi-lib you can run 32-bit apps just fine on 64-bit kernel.

I am having 64 bit only and Nvidia suppies a 64 bit graphics driver... its the way to go... !

I also favour 64bit pure. Multilib gives vendors an excuse to be lazy and not provide 64bit native versions of their programs. Its use should be discouraged (unless you absolutely can't live without those 32 bit only programs - have to be a little pragmatic I suppose.)

32 bit is a safest choice. Make a list of applications you think you will use on your system. With open source code applications there should be no problem if you are not aware to compile it yourself and to decide about installation policy. Playing W$ games on wine server can be difficult or even impossible. Next there may be no 64 bit versions for closed source apps. However running 64 bit is challenging. Greetings.

In many ways the choice depends upon what you're going to be doing. Anything you build from source (nice to have open source, eh) will build and run just fine in either 32- or 64-bit; however, 32-bit only software that you obtain from providers (such as Adobe Acrobat or, say, GoogleEarth) will not run in 64-bit unless you install Alien Bob's Multilib package (see http://alien.slackbook.org/dokuwiki/...kware:multilib). Too, a 64-bit system can handle more memory if that's important to you.

Essentially, it's a toss-up. If Adobe Acrobat and GoogleEarth matter to you, go with 32-bit (although 64-bit packages may become available for both of those sometime soon). If you're running heavy-duty engineering and mathematical applications, 64-bit is probably a better choice. Either way, all the tools and applications you'll be using on a day-to-day basis are just fine in either 32- or 64-bit (that would include things like OpenOffice.org, all the editors, compilers, utilities, and so on). You really can't tell the difference one way or the other.

Hope this helps some.

I am curious about a compilation of Fortran's libraries - are there
problems with 64 bit versions?

Thanks all, so that's what I get:
First, if you haveand have more than 4G memory, then you choose 64bits;
Second, if the software on you must-have list have 64bits version, then you choose 64bits;


OR,you choose 32bits.

Before you resort to compiling and installing software from source code, you can easily compile and install Slackaware .tgz packages (both 32bit and 64bit) from http://slackbuilds.org/.
You can also use http://sbopkg.org/ to automate the building and updating of Slackware packages from slackbuilds.org.

None that I'm aware of -- I do use NetCDF (see http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/), required by GMT, the Generic Mapping Tools (see http://gmt.soest.hawaii.edu/) for "manipulating geographic and Cartesian data sets" and producing maps. Never had a problem compiling or running GMT and netCDF on both 32- and 64-bit Slackware boxes.

Bearing in mind that Slackware itself is built bottom-up from source, you'll have appropriate libraries built for the platform.

This is not to say that there may be some problem with some FORTRAN libraries that are not native compiles but, so far, I've had no problems with the GNU libraries provided with Slackware on either platform.

Hope this helps some.