[CS-FSLUG] Query: 64-bit vs 32-bit

[Ed Hurst]

After using it for some months, I discovered by accident my "new" system 
is 64-bit. I was researching what compilation flags the CPU would honor, 
and found it was K8. When I dropped a 64-bit boot CD and there was no 
error; it ran just fine.

For now I'm running CentOS x86-64. I noticed there are some distinct 
differences: some positives, some negatives and some things simply 
different.

Good: nVidia makes a 64-bit driver, so that gives me over 3500FPS. The 
pointer is more consistent, especially noticeable when dragging 
something across the screen. Most apps start a little faster.

Bad: In Linux, you lose things from outside suppliers, like Flash, Java 
plugins, Mplayer/Xine won't show WMV files, and so forth. While I could 
easily run a 32-bit browser and add all those things, CentOS has no easy 
way to cover all the dependencies for that -- and they are substantial. 
For the most part, I really don't care about those things. Also, the 
system keeps more RAM tied up than under 32-bit.

Simply different: The verbiage in dmesg changes somewhat. There seems to 
be a slight difference in a lot of little things of no consequence, like 
some logging, the placement of system libs, etc.

What other differences do you folks know about? I'd be especially 
interested in technical details you can relate in simpler terms. For 
example, I know it means more RAM can be addressed.

-- 
Ed Hurst
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