wow this thread got off topic fast...just a question...why wouldnt you want to install the 64 bit packages if you have an athlon 64? that doesnt make sense

In the interest of being politically correct, let's just say I'm waiting for the distros/applications to become a bit more mature. I use linux mainly to browse the web, use simple office applications and some multimedia type stuff. If OOffice and Firefox have to run 32-bit, why bother with 64?.

Basically, I have the same reason. 64bit on Fedora and SuSE is just plain quirky. Main reasons with sticking with a 32bit OS.

1) I can't see a difference in performance between either. Perhaps that's a testament to how well SUSE 32 is optimized.

2) repositories don't have everything in 64 bit. Guru's SUSE respository doesn't do anything in 64-bit for example.

3) Video can be a bit tougher to set up and keep updated.

4) browsing isn't as easy to get up and running with java, embedded mplayer or xine plug-in and java.

5) flash doesn't worked in 64bit browsers.

If there was a huge difference in speed, I'd overlook these issues. But, Linux is still a 32 bit world out there, even though a lot of people work very hard to support 64 bit. My hunch is that once XP 64 bit takes off and everyone in the PC community starts rallying around it, the Linux community will iron the quirks out of it and issues like Flash will be resolved.

Rory