[ubuntu-uk] 64-bit or 32-bit, Was BBC Iplayer download on Linux

[Tim Powys-Lybbe]

In message of 21 Dec, "Alan Pope" <alan at popey.com> wrote:

> 2008/12/21 David King <linuxman at avoura.com>:
> > I do not see why more people do not use 64-bit operating systems. The
> > CPUs on all new PCs are now 64-bit, so why not have 64-bit OS?
> 
> Because (on my laptop) there's zero benefit to running 64-bit version
> of the OS and there are some gotchas with a few things either not
> working or requiring enough faff to get working that it's
> annoying/frustrating/timeconsuming to do it.

Without measuring anything, 64-bit Ubuntu definitely feels a little
faster than 32-bit.  But I agree with the other criticisms of the
present state of some of the offered applications.

> I ran 64-bit Ubuntu for 6 months and now have reverted back to 32-bit.

Fortunately I can keep both available under VMware Fusion on a mac pro.
 
> My laptop has 4GB of RAM but there's a flaw in that it will only show
> 3.3GB to the OS, whether it's 64-bit or 32-bit.

No such problem here.

-- 
Tim Powys-Lybbe                                          tim at powys.org
             For a miscellany of bygones: http://powys.org/