Here are my two cents: 1. Compiling for 64-bit will make executable binaries bigger and takes more disk space 2. because of #1, 64-bit apps uses more memory, but the difference is minimal 3. the performance of most apps are bound to I/O and mainly affected by speed of hard drives and internet transmission speed, not CPU. So don't expect any visible performance gain if you go 64-bit. Most of the deskop apps nowadays are I/O bound and 64-bit memory access won't help much and the I/O can even increase due to increased binary sizes. Get 64-bit version of nautilus and you'll see what I mean. 4. A well written C program can be used both in 32 and 64 bit environment without any modification. So no additional develop work is needed. If a C program runs in 32, but crashes in 64, that's a bug. It's a packaging issue, not a developing one. No modification to source code is not needed so developers are only needed for packaging/testing, not coding. Given the automated build system, not many developers are needed. Otherwise, it's a bug. 5. CPU intensive programs can benefit from 64 bit since your CPU can handle more data in the same time, but this only holds true when the applications are designed to take advantage of it. Most of our daily apps won't get performance gain. Actually some will even become slower. Try it at home if you don't believe it.
Conclusion: 1. Going 64-bit won't give much visible performance gain. So it's not a must-have. 2. Going 64-bit won't take much work and should be easy, unless there are bugs. So there is no reason not to do it. This can help find potential bugs. 3. If a program runs well in 32-bit OS, but fail to run in 64-bit one, this is not an architecture problem. It's a bug. Please report it instead of complain of 64-bit. _______________________________________________ Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~lubuntu-desktop Post to : [email protected] Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~lubuntu-desktop More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
