x86-64 on i386 (was Re: Promoting i386 version over x86_64?)

[Jeff Garzik]

Another data point for this thread:

Running a 64-bit kernel with a 32-bit userland is a common practice on 
non-x86 platforms, and non-Linux OS's.  For a lot of tasks, you simply 
do not need 64-bit pointers and a 64-bit process address space.  Both 
executable code and in-memory data structures tend to be smaller on 32-bit.

cp(1), for example, can be 32-bit as long as it supports O_LARGEFILE and 
off64_t.

	Jeff