<div dir="ltr">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.<div>
<br></div><div>Haggai<br><div><br><div><div class="gmail_quote">On 20 August 2011 19:32, Eli Billauer <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:eli@billauer.co.il">eli@billauer.co.il</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
Hi,<br>
<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
<br>
Insights?<br>
<br>
<br>
Eli<br>
<br>
<br>
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).<br><font color="#888888">
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-- <br>
Web: <a href="http://www.billauer.co.il" target="_blank">http://www.billauer.co.il</a><br>
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