[PLUG] 64-bit Linux - Is it worth the switch ?

[Shridhar Daithankar]

On Tuesday 20 January 2009 18:43:41 Pranav Peshwe wrote:
> Quite surprised to hear this!
> I've never tried 64 bit Linux. I always thought that I/O was the bottle
> neck and, 64bits would give me pretty much identical a performance on my
> desktop except may be for apps like gcc or gpg or lame. Your reports of
> such a speed-up make me think that i've been under-utilizing my machine.
> Will switch to 64bit some time and share the differences i experience.
> Thanks :)

Let me make this clear. The performance difference is that of 
perception(overall boot speed, GUI startup etc.) i.e. mostly the startup 
time/latency. I have not measured it but I wouldn't be surprised if the 
throughput is roughly the same. Nonetheless lower latency allows me to 
multitask better and keeps my workflow uninterrupted as much as possible. So 
it is net productivity increase for  *me*.

I think the symbol resolution on startup and linker related optimizations have 
greater effect on 64bit machine compared to 32 bit machines.

> > OTOH, I have a dos program(yay laugh) that I absolutely must have and it
> > only
> > works on 32 bit slackware/dosemu. Does not work on 64 bit linux in any
> > emulation. Of course, I know the program is buggy in some way but now
> > can't help it.
>
> Did you try it on dosbox ?

Yes. No use. The program segfaults. Same with dosemu.

-- 
 Shridhar