[Discuss] Are you using a 64bit distro?

[David Bronaugh]

Cody Swanson wrote:
> We run a lot of 64 bit Suse and Redhat opteron servers here at work. 
> My main issues have revolved around compiling 64 bit apps (dependency 
> hell) and some drivers for fiber channel HBAs and raid controllers. On 
> a standard laptop workstation you may not have as many issues, 
> especially with newer distros. Then again, I unless you're going to be 
> running apps that need the extra memory footprint 64bit gives you I 
> can't think of a viable reason to go that route right now on a laptop.
Point/counter-point here. While going to x86_64 gives you a larger 
memory footprint, on x86 this isn't the only advantage. Having 16 
registers (instead of 8) and having them be double the size is also a 
large advantage, and not one to be neglected.

That being said, the biggest nasty IMO wrt running 64-bit linux on a 
desktop is the pain with Flash. You can get it running, but it requires 
that you use nspluginwrapper, and with ubuntu, this means you have to 
bork in packages from unstable. I got it running, but it took about 2 
hours of fiddling.

Small tip if you're going to do that: if you don't have sound, install 
the 32-bit version of libasound from debian as well as all the other 
crap. It'll work fine after that.

Another tip: if you need to run 32-bit apps on debian/ubuntu, you can 
simply debootstrap a 32-bit debian install into a chroot. There's plenty 
of instructions on the 'net on how to do that. I use this to run Wine to 
run a statistical downscaling package at work.

David
> stephen hawkes wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I'll be upgrading at the end of the month to a new laptop. Along with 
>> deciding how I'll migrate (at this point it looks like I'll just be 
>> tar'ing my home folder, as a full new install would be best), I have 
>> to decide on 64 bit VS 32 bit.
>>
>> My distro of choice for laptops is Ubuntu, so I'll be going with the 
>> newest release of that. It looks like codecs and such are not a huge 
>> problem (like they were when I first had a 64 bit desktop), but I'm 
>> not sure if I want to bother with the hassles of setting up and 
>> running 32 bit applications for which there are no 64 bit 
>> counterparts. 32 bit would be painless, I don't need the extra 
>> addressable mem space and I doubt I would notice any performance 
>> benefits in daily usage, however if running a 64 bit distro has been 
>> mainly painless for some of you, then I see no good reason to not go 
>> with it.
>>
>> What do you guys/gals think and what are you running?
>>
>> Also can anyone recommend a good source for a cheap mini-pci wireless 
>> card that has native drivers (intel, atmel or what have you). I 
>> expect I will want to toss the broadcom POS in the Dell out the 
>> window. I'm running a broadcom card on my current laptop with the 
>> native driver (not ndis wrapper), but it looks like the current 
>> broadcom abomination will not work with the OS driver. I would really 
>> like to avoid the ndis wrapper as it has bit me in the behind before 
>> (kernel locks, poor reliability etc).
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Stephen
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Discuss mailing list
>> Discuss at vlug.org
>> http://ladybug.vlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>>
>>   
>
> _______________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at vlug.org
> http://ladybug.vlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>