On Tue, Sep 20, 2016 at 7:38 PM, Jeff Ross <jr...@openvistas.net> wrote: > I've just rented a server with 8GB of ram from m5hosting (based in large > part from the many recommendations I read while searching misc@ on > marc.info). Now the question is: i386 which is what I've always run on my 2 > GB ram server, or amd64? http://www.openbsd.org/amd64.html and > http://www.openbsd.org/i386.html are curiously silent on the amount of ram > that can be accessed. If I have 8GB, I for sure want to use it all.
I'm inclined to say, "don't worry about PAE, use amd64 regardless." The reason for this is ASLR (address space layout randomization). ASLR works better when you have a larger address space to work with, and amd64 gives you that larger address space. Plus of course amd64 is the more 'modern' architecture, which implies that it will tend to get more developer attention. With time, i386 will probably be dropped just like 32-bit sparc was. -ken
