12.04 LTS: 64-bit desktop by default?

[Jeremy Bicha]

On 16 April 2012 10:14, Chase Douglas <chase.douglas at canonical.com> wrote:
> On 04/15/2012 11:03 PM, Steve Langasek wrote:
>> Hi folks,
>>
>> Back at last UDS in November, we discussed whether it was time to switch to
>> presenting 64-bit images as the default image for desktop, like they already
>> are for server, now that all new desktop hardware is 64-bit and multiarch is
>> a reality.
>>
>> There was a rough consensus at UDS that the blockers were solved, but that
>> the question should be taken to ubuntu-devel to gather more input.  That
>> input-gathering is happening much later than intended, but here we are now.
>>
>> The blueprint at
>> <https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/foundations-p-64bit-by-default>
>> includes links to some data gathered by the inimitable Colin King, showing
>> that in terms of performance, there are both pros and cons for switching to
>> amd64: memory consumption goes up, and therefore power consumption goes up
>> if the system is making more use of swap, but on the other side, most
>> CPU-bound operations will be faster on amd64.  So there is no clear
>> performance argument for preferring one over the other.
>
> Many netbooks only support up to 2G of memory, let alone the fact that
> they often ship with 1G. I currently have a netbook with 2G, and I am
> well over 1G of memory used with only one tab open in chromium and no
> other apps open. When I start to swap it can get near painfully slow.
> Moving to amd64 would only exacerbate the issue, forcing more swapping
> on an already slow machine.
>
> I'm not sure that we should hold up progress for netbooks, but it is an
> issue we need to be aware of.

Also, it's only recently that new netbooks consistently support 64-bit
OS's. I'm sure in some parts of the world there are still shelves full
of non-64-bit-compatible Atom netbooks.

These are the non-64-bit-capable Atom chips:
http://ark.intel.com/search/advanced/?s=t&FamilyText=Intel%C2%AE%20Atom%E2%84%A2%20Processor&EM64=false

Jeremy Bicha