32 or 64 bit ubuntu

[Marc Lanctot]

On 10/03/09 04:23 PM, jim ruxton wrote:
> Thanks to everyone who helped me with deciding on a laptop. I ended up
> getting this one at Canada Computers :
> http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=020863&cid=896.645
>
> Now I am eager to put linux on it. I will use Kubuntu. I'm trying to
> decide if I should go with 32 bit or 64 bit. I use a lot of programs
> that don't come with the package. Many of which will be 32 bit. I read
> somewhere that I can use the -force-architecture flag to install 32 bit
> apps. I'm just wondering if having 64 bit will be more of a hassle than
> it is worth. Also considering triple booting vista, 64 bit kubuntu, 32
> bit kubntu . Has anyone been down these roads before? Any sage advice?
> Thanks,

I just reread your post.. realized I missed something important.

Can you clarify or elaborate "I use a lot of programs that don't come 
with the package"? Most Ubuntu packages that you get from apt all have 
64-bit versions.

Do you mean particular non-Ubunutu-packaged programs? If you can get 
their source you can build them on your own machine. If you have 32-bit 
binaries (commercial apps?), it depends on the size of the programs. If 
we're talking about small, maybe non-X, programs (not many library 
dependencies) then the linux32 script should suffice. If your 32-bit 
binaries have a lot of linker deps on external libs, you probably need 
32-bit versions of those libraries compiled on your machine.. which is 
not impossible to have but then you would have to essentially have a 
copy of some 32-bit built libraries on your machine. 64-bit is becoming 
quite common; you should check to see if these programs have 64-bit 
versions available first.

It would help if we knew what those programs were..

Marc

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