The switch to x64

[danvds3]

Well, just finished downloading Ubuntu Feisty x64 bit. This by the way is my first ever 64 bit OS. Now I've checked that the Dell Dimension 3100c Definately supports x64 architecture and it does. I had a little look at the Bios, and it said EM64T = yes. I'm guessing this is 64 bit technology.

Well, I'm gonna go have a little test run. Is 64 bit technology any different. I sure know that it can handle a hell of a lot more RAM!

Well guys, this post is probably in the wrong place, but feel free to comment, and talk about what you think of x64 vs. x86/32

[d38dm8nw81k1ng]

theoretically speaking there should be a slight speed improvement (larger amounts of data being transferred per cycle). however, i'm not sure whether most apps have been properly coded to use the full 64-bit extensions (something i remember techiemoe banging on about sometime last year). i don't have an x64 CPU so i couldn't say for certain

[devils casper]

i have installed Kubuntu Feisty 64Bit. there isn't any performance difference in 32bit and 64 bit. i didn't face any problem anywhere. most of packages are available for 64bit except Flash Player.
Flash Player is not available for 64bit and i had to tweak it.

[bidi]

I use the AMD64 version of Debian and can sincerely say there is no noticable difference! Currently, the only advantage of using a 64-bit distro to a 32-bit distro is bragging rights. Also, as was said before, there are certain, proprietary, software that will not run in 64-bit applications (such as Flash). To solve this you can learn to use free software, I use Gnash instead of Flash, for example.

[bigtomrodney]

I was thinking of trying Ubuntu 64-bit on my new Core 2 Duo. What's Gnash like? Is it good enough for everyday use?

Also my other concern is repositories. Do you find the 64-bit repos any better or any worse?

[zba78]

I've still got a single core, 32 bit CPU so I was wondering, which one made the biggest noticeable difference, going from 32 to 64 bit or going from single to dual core?

Of course if you upgraded from a single core 32-bit to a dual core 64-bit it's difficult to answer.

[bidi]

I was thinking of trying Ubuntu 64-bit on my new Core 2 Duo. What's Gnash like? Is it good enough for everyday use?

It's GNU's implementation of Flash! The current version on Debian Testing is 0.7.2, but the latest 0.8.0 is more compliant to current Flash standards. Version 0.7.2 currently doesn't play almost anything, but 0.8.0 was released specifically to be able to play videos from YouTube. I just checked, and 0.8.0 is available under Unstable, so Ubuntu might already have it in its repos.

The website is: Gnash - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)

Also my other concern is repositories. Do you find the 64-bit repos any better or any worse?

The same! AMD64 and x86 repositories, at least under Debian, have the same software and are actually hosted under the same server. If you plan to use unofficial repos I can't comment as I only use official ones.

[bigtomrodney]

I've still got a single core, 32 bit CPU so I was wondering, which one made the biggest noticeable difference, going from 32 to 64 bit or going from single to dual core?

Well I am running 32 bit on the Core 2 and it's a 1.66GHz laptop chip. I can tell you the difference is phenomenal. I came from a 2.4GHz P4 so I'm switching from 130nm to 65nm in my case. Also the chip runs at 1GHz almost all of the time saving that it can clock each core independently up to 1.66GHz on demand. It really is a great chip. I can have heavy process run in the background without affecting my work. All I can say is if you are buying a new chip the Core 2 Duos and the new Brisbane AMD chips are excellent.

I just checked, and 0.8.0 is available under Unstable, so Ubuntu might already have it in its repos.[/url]

Yeah I knew what it was, it was pretty much unusable last time I looked though. I might check the Ubuntu repos and see what it's like!

[danvds3]

Here's my 64-bit related specs:

512mb RAM
3.00GHz Pentium 4 with HT Technology and EMT64

I've got 64-bit Ubuntu Feisty and it's pretty much the same. It can multitask much more efficiently and seems to have less bugs in areas like logging back in.

As for Repositories, It seems as though Ubuntu 64-bit allows you to install 32-bit applications, Which is pretty cool. Plus, the Ubuntu repository looks identical to the 32-bit repo. I think the amazing developers at ubuntu have re-coded every .deb file in their directory, which is very amazing.

[mahlerfan]

Gnash is not quite there yet, but there is no problems with adobe flash 9 + ndiswrapper. In terms of software selection 64 bit linux is there, but at the same time, there is no point in it for me when I don't have the ram to take advantage of it-- I get the most speedup by simply recompiling the kernel. I haven't noticed anything significant using the amd64 (i.e. march=k specific optimizations in gcc, and I just don't know if the 64 bit apps are anything more than recompiles. Is it more than that now?