How do I know if I have 64bit suse?

[arcull]

Hi guys. This should be a simple one How do I know that I have installed 64bit suse 10.2, because it looks like 32bit, I want to check that.Thanx.

[gogalthorp]

Hehehe....

How can you tell by just looking at it? What is a 64 bit OS supposed to look like??

Try clicking the my computer icon this should tell you what version. You can also check the name of the ISO you downloaded.

BTW you will have far fewer problems with 32 bit. The only reason to go 64 bit at present is if you need more then 3 gig of memory for some reason. There are still lots and lots of 32 bit program (proprietary) that though might run in 64 often cause problems.

[arcull]

Don't tell me that I thought that I could install 32bit programs normally. Is it really so unsupported? Wouldn't suse 10.2 64bit run faster and allow me to take advantage of my 64bit dual core processor, I mean real multi tasking. Should I really go back to 32bit suse

[needee]

Dear arcull
> How do I know that I have installed 64bit suse 10.2
Rigt click on Desktop > open Terminal > then execute the following command

uname -a

if the output contains "x86_64" or "ia64" then you are using 64bit version of suse.

and Dear gogalthorp
> The only reason to go 64 bit at present is if you need more then 3 gig of memory
so if have a 32 bit OS, I cant use more then 3 gig of memory ? is this memory limitation is a Linux only issue ? please correct me if am wrong.

Regards
Needee

[devils casper]

Don't tell me that I thought that I could install 32bit programs normally. Is it really so unsupported? Wouldn't suse 10.2 64bit run faster and allow me to take advantage of my 64bit dual core processor, I mean real multi tasking. Should I really go back to 32bit suse

Check this link, Should I choose 32bit or 64bit Linux?

[bigtomrodney]

so if have a 32 bit OS, I cant use more then 3 gig of memory ? is this memory limitation is a Linux only issue ? please correct me if am wrong.

No this is not a Linux matter, this is a limitation of the 32-bit architecture. It affects Windows and any other system running in 32-bit. There is a system called PAE - Physical Address Extensions which both Linux and Windows use but it has a large overhead. Basically it uses some trickery to address the extra RAM but you will seriously reduce what's accessible anyway by using it in the process.

For anything more than 3GB you should use a 64 bit OS.