32 bit vs 64 bit

[Mark Lane]

On 8/20/06, John McGregor <mr.mcgregor-bJEeYj9oJeDQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> Chris Browne wrote:
>
> > There's some benefit to both directions...
> >
> > - In the "running in 32 bit mode" direction, there is the merit that
> > things like Flash players and video codecs and OpenOffice.org and such
> > that are primarily or fundamentally 32 bit code will run with as few
> > layers of complications as possible.
> >
> > - Of course, there will be applications that can benefit from being
> > aware of extra registers and of larger "bit grabs".
> >
> > I don't see indication of there being **enormous** performance
> > differences for common "desktop and web browsing and writing some
> > documents" purposes...
> >
> Thanks Chris, that really helps. The reason that I aked the question in
> the first place is that the distro I plan to use is MEPIS -- which
> does't have a 64 bit version, at least on the basis of the mirrors that
> I checked. I am taking courses through the Chang School at Ryerson.
> Ryerson seems to be pretty Windows centric in terms of how written work
> can be submitted, so I need  Open Office ( to be able to save as a .doc)
> to work with a minimum of fuss and bother. As well, the laptop has a
> Broadcom 43xx wireless nic, so I am likely going to have to use
> ndiswrapper in order to get it working. I am sure that there are people
> on this list  for whom solving these problems on a 64 bit machine would
> be a 'no brainer', but I am not in that league yet. :lol:
>

Running the 32bit version of OpenOffice on a 64bit Distro is not a
problem. It requires some 32bit libraries but most distros handle that
all for you.
-- 
Mark Lane, CET <lmlane-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org>
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