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64-bit Firefox is the New Default on 64-bit Windows (mozilla.org)
An anonymous reader shares a blog post: Users on 64-bit Windows who download Firefox will now get our 64-bit version by default. That means they'll install a more secure version of Firefox, one that also crashes a whole lot less. How much less? In our tests so far, 64-bit Firefox reduced crashes by 39% on machines with 4GB of RAM or more.
All my windows machines have 64-bit Windows installed, but I have already installed the 32-bit version of Firefox on them (because that was the default at the time). How about automatically UPGRADING my 32-bit Firefox to 64-bit on machines that can handle it?
This is scheduled for the next release, Firefox 56.
Also when people had 4GB RAM max on their computers there was no advantage of a 64bit OS. The 64-bit applications are larger and they are not faster. If the 32-bit version of Firefox crashes more then it's because they aren't spending as much time maintaining it.
x86-64 is about much more than the address space.
Please enlighten us. Ignorant mortals might think they're compiling the exact same code.
More and larger registers. SSE1/2 instructions guaranteed, these are optional in x86. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
There's even a Linux project called x32 to make use of these features, while limiting the address space to 32 bits per process for potential speedups. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
64-bit applications can be faster if the code benefits from the twice available registers.
64 bit Windows still has the 32 bit bits in it. So, 32 bit will still run. 64 bit Linux usually only has the 64 bit bits within it, as default. So, of course Linux went default 64 bit first. It was easier.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."