>As far as I know, aufs, cloop and other critical for the boot kernel modules
>are now compiled within the kernel (and are not loaded by the initrd anymore).
>So all the critical components which could have a big performance impact as
>(>4GB memory, fast I/O and context switching, 64 bits guest virtual machines support,...)
>already exists in the 64 bits kernel created by Klaus in his Knoppix 6.5 version.
>As an example I run VMware workstation with 64 bits guest without any problem
>(besides the shared /mnt/hgfs folder which I still cannot get to work properly... yet)
I completely agree with you about the practicality and efficiency of going the hybrid route to 64-bits. This is not about merely boosting Knoppix by employing 64- bits, for that purpose standard Knoppix is very suitable. And personally, I do _not_ want Klaus to spend his precious time maintaining two similar versions.
As for aufs, also the tools are needed for development, and the status of debian aufs packages seem a bit unclear to me.
>PS: As a side note, I still do not see the need to have every single binary compiled in 64 bits
>anymore beside the academic interest and the fun to create a "pure" 64 bits Knoppix version.
>I much prefer to have more apps available (on a limited size DVD) and recompile or download
>the few applications or services that I need to run as fast as possible since 32 and 64 bits
>applications can co-exist with a 64 bits kernel. Please don't get me wrong we all like performance
>but I think that with the 64bits kernel of the new Knoppix 6.5 we already have what we need.
>BTW, recompiling applicatons is much easier than it looks like: configure, make, make install.
Again, I completely agree! In the actual case, it seems that I can get away with a modest compilation effort and still be set up "purely" 64-bits.
But this is a very basic system, package selection from CD Knoppix + a few additions, most notably VMware, R and MySQL. And at least with R, the effort pays off. It also seems to do with VMware, everything seems to run perfectly well, but I use rather simple setups there.
For a plethora of applications, if 32-bits versions run well in the 64-bits system, I'm just happy to use them. This is not about puritanism, but hassle-free 64-bits when you need it. :-)