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Re: Switching to amd64 - is it worth it?



On Mon January 22 2007 06:33, Juergen Fiedler wrote:

> I don't do anything that needs vast computing power - I mostly use
> that machine for web browsing, email and the occasional movie, all of
> which works quite nicely with the x86 kernel and libraries. Is there
> any good reason to switch to an amd64 kernel and if so, would I be
> setting myself up for major headaches?

I would stay with a 32bit kernel if your running the i386 distro, more of a 
gut feeling than a scientific fact.. :) You could install the -amd64 kernel 
and just experiment with it to see how it goes. Keep your current kernel also 
just in case it doesn't work the way you'd like it to.

I run the amd64 distro myself and at this point the only thing I miss is the 
flash player. I just can't get flash working on this box but it doesn't 
bother me (much) so I just live without it. In the early days of the amd64 
distro I missed OOo also but that is there in etch now and it works well in 
my experience.

Multi-Media may not work as well on amd64 as it does on i386 but it works for 
everything I need so I'm happy. I can play mp3 and ogg files (as well as wma 
when I need to) so I'm happy. The differences between amd64 and i386 are few 
at this point.

Adobe says they are working on a 64bit flash player so it will be there at 
some point, it seems to be slow coming but it is coming.. :) There is work on 
gnash also for flash support. I wouldn't be surprised if gnash came through 
before adobe but we'll have to wait and see.



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