I hope we get this in Kubuntu 10.10...

[GreyGeek]

Re: I hope we get this in Kubuntu 10.10...

32 bit is junk

That raises an interesting question. I move to 64bit with Jaunty because I found that it offered about a 15% or so performance boost. But, I had to have an ia32 library in order to run many apps, which were compiled only for 32bit kernels.

Anyone have an idea about how many of the favorite Kubuntu apps are actually using 64bit capability, as apposed to just running on a 64bit OS using the ia32bit library?

FireFox?
OOo?
GIMP?
KOffice?
Skype?
Synaptic?
QtCreator?
VLC?
mplayer?
kmymoney2?
etc...

[claydoh]

Re: I hope we get this in Kubuntu 10.10...

flash, for the most part is the main 32bit app running in 64, there really aren't many apps that are 32-bit only anymore, at least in the repos

But in my case some things just work better atm in 32bit

My desktop is a dual core AMD system w/4gb ram and onboard video, connected solely to my televsion, and running Boxee and XBMC.

Boxee uses flash for a lot of it's content, and in my particular case, I switched from Lucid 64 bit to Lucid 32bit (and the pae kernel) and I have no fladsh video problems anymore that are not specific to using a somewhat anemic video chipset for HD playback.

I personally don't see a noticeable drop in overall performance, though re-encoding video for burnning to DVD takes a slightly longer time, it seems. Overall in my own particular case, 32bit seems the better choice for MY use, at this particular time.

[Yuri sss]

Re: I hope we get this in Kubuntu 10.10...

32bit is not junk

It so is. The old 32-bit junk is braking out 64-bit badly. There's no reason for 32-bit to exist anymore, except for some vintage PCs, yet the stupid, ignorant masses are still clinging to it >
The lazy bums at Adobe even ceased to do any 64-bit versions of the new 10.1 Flash, so you only have the 64-bit version of 10.0 from February. I hope Gnash et al soon become a real alternative.
32-bit needs to die really bad.

@GreyGeek
Luckily this isn't WinFaildows, where there are still hardly any 64-bit apps at all.
On 64-bit Linux, all apps actually are 64-bit, including Firefox - while it's offered in 32-bit only on the Firefox homepage, the versions from the distro repositories are all 64-bit. The only thing that is 32-bit only is the new Flash 10.1, so either you use the older 10.0 only on sites which are trustworthy, or you use 10.1 with nspluginwrapper. However, as nspluginwrapper is a festering piece of sh*t, I prefer the former.
Only other app that uses 32-bit libraries is Wine, because the very most Faildows apps are still 32-bit.

You can open Synaptic, select the ia32libs package from the list, switch to the Dependencies tab below and select "Dependants" from the drop-down, then you see which apps still use the 32-bit libraries.

@claydoh
32-bit systems can only use 3 GB due to their architecture. The pae kernel is an ugly hack only. In order to access the remaining memory, it does a lot of swapping, which of course degrades performance, which you noticed yourself (encoding takes longer).
Simply use the 64-bit version of Flash 10.0 with Boxee, works fine here.

[Vistaus]

Re: I hope we get this in Kubuntu 10.10...

32 bit is junk

That raises an interesting question. I move to 64bit with Jaunty because I found that it offered about a 15% or so performance boost. But, I had to have an ia32 library in order to run many apps, which were compiled only for 32bit kernels.

Anyone have an idea about how many of the favorite Kubuntu apps are actually using 64bit capability, as apposed to just running on a 64bit OS using the ia32bit library?

FireFox?
OOo?
GIMP?
KOffice?
Skype?
Synaptic?
QtCreator?
VLC?
mplayer?
kmymoney2?
etc...

FireFox? 64-bit
OOo? 64-bit
GIMP? 64-bit
KOffice? 64-bit
Skype? I thought also 64-bit, but dunno for sure
Synaptic? 64-bit
QtCreator? Dunno.
VLC? Arch independent
mplayer? I thought 64-bit, but dunno for sure
kmymoney2? 64-bit

At least almost all of the programs in the default repo's are 64-bit.

[67GTA]

Re: I hope we get this in Kubuntu 10.10...

I use 64bit, but downloaded the 32bit version linked to test the installer. It doesn't work. Selecting "Try Kubuntu" makes you sit through the timed slide show, and never goes to the desktop. When I tried "Install Kubuntu" it threw an error at me and hung at the "getting time from a network server" while the slide show went by. I will check back Monday to see if the 64bit images are populated and try again.

[claydoh]

Re: I hope we get this in Kubuntu 10.10...

@claydoh
32-bit systems can only use 3 GB due to their architecture. The pae kernel is an ugly hack only. In order to access the remaining memory, it does a lot of swapping, which of course degrades performance, which you noticed yourself (encoding takes longer).
Simply use the 64-bit version of Flash 10.0 with Boxee, works fine here

Boxee uses it's own version of the flashplayer, actually. And for me many streams simply either are black with audio, or fading colors with sound, but no video. Yet it works fine in 32bit land. My case is not everyone's case, and the very short difference in encoding times doesn't make it worth my while trying to debug/fix the Boxee issues or (set up the 32bit binaries to run in 64bit ) any more than I already have (my desktop dual-boots 32 and 64bit)

Plus I only need to carry one cd to show stuff off