64-bit - Not recommended for daily desktop usage

NoOp glgxg at sbcglobal.net
Fri Jun 11 03:28:18 UTC 2010


On 06/10/2010 01:40 PM, Ioannis Vranos wrote:
> On Thu, 2010-06-10 at 12:46 -0700, NoOp wrote:
>> On 06/10/2010 11:16 AM, Ioannis Vranos wrote:
>> > Today, I came across this description for 64-bit Ubuntu, at Ubuntu's
>> > site:
>> > 
>> > "64-bit - Not recommended for daily desktop usage".
>> > 
>> > 
>> > Why the 64-bit version is "not recommended for daily desktop usage"?
>> 
>> Actual reference link:
>> http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download
>> 
>> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-website/+bug/585940
>> [Text reads "not recommended" for 64-bit]
> 
> 
> Myself am using 9.10 x64, and I planned to move to 10.04 x64 when 10.10
> is released (I am moving to new versions with a release delay).
> 
> However this description makes me puzzled, and I wonder whether I should
> bypass 10.04 and move to 10.10 instead.
> 
> 
> Imagine how newcomers with modern desktops and laptops will think about
> this, when they see that the 64-bit version is "Not recommended for
> daily desktop usage".

Ioannis I was only delivering the message regarding the bug report
(don't shoot the messenger please :-)

 I have both 32bit and 64bit installs. I'm not going to offer
suggestions on either as the list archive is full of 32bit vs 64bit if
you care to look it up. That said, here are the issues that I find
w/64bt mixed with 32bit machines - meaning that I have a 32bit machine
and a 64bit machine:

1. You need to download dual versions of many applications. For example,
if I update a version of 32bit xyz I can generally transfer that to my
other 32bit machines w/o issue. However, for my 64bit machines, I then
need to go out and also download the amd64bit version. Thsi causes a lot
of added download overhead.

2. You can't always get application 64bit builds, or can't get them at
the same time as the i386 builds.
  Quite often you'll find that updates from the Ubuntu repositories are
available first in i386 & sometimes days later in amd64. The recent
example for the flash 10.1 security update is a good example; the update
is available for i386, but who knows when it will be available for 64bit?

3. You can't get amd64 builds/packages. Other times you simply can't get
a 64bit build for a package/application at all. This means that you need
to resort to a 32bit build & hope that it works. Sometimes it does,
sometimes it doesn't.

That said, I don't really experience many problems with my 9.10 and
10.04 64bit installs. Most of the time they work just fine. Just be
aware of the issues mentioned above. You can always install a 32bit and
64bit version side-by-side to compare if you wish.







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