> Okay thanks, any news on a 64bit version for x86? Assuming you mean Firefox, remember that (Open)Solaris x86 runs on both 32-bit and 64-bit with a single binary distro (unlike Linux, where AFAIK a 64-bit kernel normally runs only 64-bit binaries, so 32-bit and 64-bit are separate binary distros*). So to have 64-bit Firefox and still be able to run Firefox on 32-bit, there would need to be two copies of everything: Firefox, bundled plugins, etc. Not to mention every single one of the many shared libraries that it depends on.
Yes, on x86, a 64-bit binary is usually a little faster (not to mention being able to address _much_ more memory). But is it enough faster to be worth having two copies of something as big a browser? Or do you have so much RAM on your box that having the browser grow past 2GB address space is no big deal? And might there not be other things you want more (given limited resources) than for people to spend the time getting Firefox and everything it depends on to build (and work properly) _twice_? *And also unlike Mac OS X, where a 32-bit kernel can run 64-bit applications, provided the CPU is 64-bit capable. On Solaris, a 64-bit kernel is required to run 64-bit applications, but can still run 32-bit applications. Additionally, Solaris does not have "fat" binaries (a single binary file that combines binaries compiled for two or more architectures), so it ends up having totally separate copies, with a way (typically isaexec) to have a single program decide which to actually execute. -- This message posted from opensolaris.org _______________________________________________ opensolaris-discuss mailing list [email protected]
