Any reason not to go 64bit?

[bailout]

I will be installing on a Athlon x3, 4GB ram system. Is there any reason not to use the 64bit version? I know there used to be problems with various add on programs ie flash, drivers wine etc and the speed difference was small if you weren't doing things like video encoding. However, if the bugs have been worked out then it may be worth it.

[SteveRiley]

Re: Any reason not to go 64bit?

Many of us here have been using 64-bit for a while now with no ill effects. I can report successful operation of nVidia binary drivers, Wine, Flash, sound, and VirtualBox.

[bsniadajewski]

Re: Any reason not to go 64bit?

Same here. I even used the 64-bit Minimal CD to build up my system from the ground up (actually it was the Natty minimal upgrade directly to Oneiric, then built up my Kubuntu desktop) with no difficulties. If need be, you'll still have access to the ia32 packages too.

[dtr]

Re: Any reason not to go 64bit?

No reason not to go 64bit.

I too am using AMD Athlon II x3 with 4GB ram. I haven't had any problems that are 64bit specific.

[vinnywright]

Re: Any reason not to go 64bit?

yup running 64bit hear sense 11.04 now net uped to11.10 no probs at all on intel stuff.

HP-G62
core i3 4Gig RAM core integrated graphics

VINNY

[doctordruidphd]

Re: Any reason not to go 64bit?

I have been using 64-bit for the last several releases, and it works well. There are only occasional glitches with 32-bit programs, and most of those can be avoided by downloading from the repositories or compiling yourself, as opposed to installing binaries from websites.

You need to be aware of one point: there is a transition in progress in the ubuntu development branch (precise, 12.04) with the way 32-bit programs are handled by the 64-bit system, and that transition is not complete or functional at this point. Things like wine currently do not work in precise systems. This transition is expected to be complete by the precise release date, but to reiterate, is not currently in a working state. So if you need to run 32-bit programs, stay with one of the current, supported releases. Do not install or upgrade to 12.04 until later in the development cycle.

[dibl]

Re: Any reason not to go 64bit?

I've been installing the 64-bit Kubuntu since ver. 6.06. There used to be issues with flash, but not in the past couple of years. There are some packages, like Google Earth, that are only packaged for 32-bit, but if you install the ia32-libs package, that's not a problem. I don't know of any package that I can't install and use, if I want to. BTW, Linux is headed toward multiarch in the near future, and we won't have to talk about this anymore.

[bailout]

Re: Any reason not to go 64bit?

Thanks for the replies. Does anyone know why ubuntu and kubuntu have the 32bit version as 'recommended' on their download page?

[PaulW2U]

Re: Any reason not to go 64bit?

Does anyone know why ubuntu and kubuntu have the 32bit version as 'recommended' on their download page?

That will change once 12.04 is released - http://www.webupd8.org/2011/11/expec...4-precise.html

[ardvark71]

Re: Any reason not to go 64bit?

Hi bailout...

My experience with 10.04 x64 was for the most part, excellent. As you mentioned, there are the occasional glitches with 32 bit compatibility, the worst example for me being Opera. A 32 bit version would not install so, fortunately, a 64 bit version was available. This, of course, required the 64 bit version of flash (for Linux.) I have no idea where the current version can be found, however, as Adobe has changed its links and I am not writing this from a Linux OS.

Regards...