If all you want is the overall RAM to exceed 4 GB, I think you could use a 32 bit PAE kernel. However, the x86_64 architecture has some other benefits, such as a larger number of registers. I heard you could sometimes applications perform better because of that.
Haggai On 20 August 2011 19:32, Eli Billauer <e...@billauer.co.il> wrote: > Hi, > > > It has suddenly hit me, that there's no apparent reason to run most > executables as 64 bits on a x86_64 machine. I mean, what for? It's not like > I expect Firefox to address 1 GB of RAM. If it does, let it crash. On the > other hand, plugins and other binaries for 64 bits is a headache. Flash > player tops the list, I suppose. > > > So it really makes me wonder: Why are the preinstalled binaries on a 64 bit > machine, well, 64 bit executables? I run a 64 bit machine because I want the > *overall* RAM to exceed 4 GB, but except for virtual machines, I don't > expect any application to have problems with the 32 bit limitation. > > > Insights? > > > Eli > > > P.S. Just changed my Firefox to 32 bits. Had to install some libraries > manually to get Flash Player going: yum install libpk-gtk-module.so > libcanberra-gtk-module.so libcurl.i686 (thanks goes to strace as usual). > > -- > Web: http://www.billauer.co.il > > ______________________________**_________________ > Haifux mailing list > Haifux@haifux.org > http://hamakor.org.il/cgi-bin/**mailman/listinfo/haifux<http://hamakor.org.il/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/haifux> >
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