> My opinion (professional in this case, even) is that i386 users want > compatibility with their binaries from 1998.
I don't claim to be representative, but at least the above doesn't fit my case: I use i386 on many of my machines and here are the reasons: - 2 of those machines use processors that don't support amd64 (a Pentium III for one and Core Duo for the other). - For the other 4, the main reason is probably inertia, and the secondary reason is that I've found that I'm more affected by cache hit/miss (and swapping) than by speed of in-CPU operations, so i386 gives me slightly higher performance (in those rare cases where I've measured it) because both code and data is more compact. I suspect that none of my 2 non-amd64 machines will be in use by 2038. And I see no reason why I'd want to "upgrade" to amd64 on the other machines, but if that's what it takes to keep them running past 2038, then that's probably what I'll do. Stefan