Re: 32 to 64 upgrade notion
On Monday 17 January 2005 02:32, Craig Jackson wrote:
> Hi,
> I'd like some advice please. I've been using Debian for a few years now. I
> am making a production iptables firewall, squid proxy, ftp, openvpn server.
> For this box I am thinking about using amd64 cpu and installing debian
> sarge 32 bit with the notion that in a year or so the Debian amd64 will be
> available with security updates and officially not beta but production also
> and that then I can upgrade to 64 bit Debian.
Just realize that with Debian, as of today, you cannot upgrade directly from
32bit to 64bit. You must re-install.
It is clear though that multi-bit size arch is already something that is a
problem with other cpu types than the x86 arch. The PowerPC has a 32 bit and
64 bit version, as does the Sparc architecture. In other words, multi
architecture distribution is something that is not just needed for x86 arch.
I believe all users would like to be able to install packages that are either
32bit or 64bit and expect the distribution to handle it transparently.
As other distributions can handle that already for x86, eventually Debian will
be able to do so too.
I would say: go for it.
>
> First is this a good strategy? Are there drawbacks? Am I taking a
> performance hit using 32 bit Debian on 64 bit amd for this type of server?
Today, on AMD64, 64 bit soft has a small performance loss compaired to 32bits
soft. This is often due to better assembly optimization for 32 bits mode.
As specific 64bit assembly does not significantly differe from specific 32bit
assembly, I expect this to change, when people learn to do both. When that
happen, on AMD64, 64bit code will be faster.
Ernest.
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