Are You Switching to 64-bit Processors?

chip_whisperer asks: "I used to be a big time custom desktop builder, making many working boxes per year, but I've been off the bandwagon for about four years now and am trying to get back into it now that Ars Technica has just released their recommendations. The standard seems to be heading towards 64-bit processors, but I'm wondering if it worth it to run a box on XP-64? I've heard that driver support for 64-bit processors can be a hassle. Also, for you fellow Linux geeks, how are current distros (like Suse, Ubuntu, Debian, and others) doing in supporting 64 bit processors?"

Comments

Gentoo's pretty well along

[bssteph]

Can't speak for the other distros, but Gentoo has very good 64-bit support, and it seems that a lot of people feel it is one of the best at it. Both AMD64 and EM64T are supported with the "amd64" arch, so don't get put off by their docs.

You can build pretty much all of your standard desktop software in native 64-bit mode, with some exceptions (generally game console emulators and other games [closed source or sometimes even open source, unfortunately], certain media libraries, and browser plugins), but Gentoo also makes the 32-bit emulation libraries pretty painless to install and use. I've had an AMD64 desktop on ~amd64 for over a year now, and it's been smooth sailing (as far as Gentoo can be considered smooth sailing).

So, as far as Gentoo goes, 64-bit is fine for most things, but if you need some specific software, skip it for now and install using x86 media (which will run the system in 32-bit mode). Example: I run a spare Pentium D mid-tower in 32-bit just because zSNES has been so fragile on my desktop.

Re:Sorry, about XP-64 I don't know...

[lanc]

yeah, unix-style copypasting is nice - though it has its drawbacks too - ever tried to mark some text selected and then change it with this method?