On Mon, January 5, 2009 12:41, MikeDL wrote:
i hv Core 2 Duo processor and 2 GB memory on my notebook and i m going to have a fresh install for opensuse 11.1. From opensuse website, it says for my spec, I should go with 64 bit version. What is the plus minus of 32 bit and 64 bit?? Should I go with 64 bit?? Could 64 bit runs Compiz?
Your processor is designed to work best in 64 bit mode, and you will only get the full benefit of the extra registers and 64 bit instructions with a 64 bit operating system. The plus is significantly better speed in heavily processor bound apps (graphics, scientific, etc.).
CPU bound apps benefit a lot from 64 bit. I/O bound apps have marginal to none benefit from 64bit. An I/O bound app is an app that spends most of its time waiting for input from peripherals. Most desktop software works with user generated input from keyboard/mouse. In simple English: if you have to type or click a lot in your application, you won't benefit a lot from 64 bit. This is oversimplified.
I've been running 64 bits on my main workstations for over a year.
For over a year? Then you may consider yourself a 64 bit newbie. It is only in the last year or so that 64 bit has become a bit usable for the desktop. Some of us have been tinkering with 64 bit for 3 or 4 years, and have built user experiences. Some good, some bad. Again, CPU bound apps are great on 64 bit. I/O bound? Not worth typing 'sudo zypper in foobar32'.
No problems at all related to installing 32 bit libraries to support the rare 32 bit code I need to run (games like Doom 3, Quake 4) various other things via wine, and multimedia codecs. YaST handles it automatically. The NVIDIA installer even provides 32 bit compatibility GL libraries.
Early on, there were problems with browser plugins but I haven't noticed any recently. I guess it depends on what you browse to.
No. It depends on hard work that programmers have done over the years to improve browser plugins for 64 bit. They solved all those problems before you started using 64 bit, so you don't know about all the Bad Things that can happen. That's not your fault. Those of us that Have Been There (and Bought The T-Shirt) are more careful. If it (our current 32 bit installations) works, don't break (upgrade to 64 bit) it. As always, YMMV. -- Amedee -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org