Disappointed with 64 bit Linux

Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX N2469R caf at omen.com
Fri May 11 16:55:27 UTC 2007


I've been using 64 bit Linux on AMD and Core Duo machines for some
time now.  I started using 64 bit fc7t4 on my server in the hopes
that would get around the ethernet reliability problems with newer
kernels (it didn't).

None of my machines have more than 3GB memory.  

Some programs run faster in 64 bits, but the only one I've compared
(unrar) ran more slowly when compiled for 64 bits.

One program whose authors suggest 64 bits is the video editor
Cinelerra.  That said, the only Distro I've seen with a working
Cinelerra is dyne:bolic, a 32 bit distro.

Some programs assume pointers and ints are the same size and/or
that a long will hold a pointer as it has since the 8086.
Digging out these bugs in unfamiliar source code is tedious at best.

So my inclination is to revert to 32 bits when fc7 comes out.
I suppose this will all be sorted out by 2026.





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