[CentOS] x84_64 distro: Really worth it ?

[chrism at imntv.com]

Rodrigo Barbosa wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> I have so far avoided using the x86_64 distro, sticking to 32 bits on all
> my servers.
>
> My question for all using the 64bits distro is: is it really worth it ?
> What kind of applications are you running, and what kind of _real_
> gain did you have ?
>
> Note: All my servers are 2GB RAM or less.
>   

I have avoided 64-bit CentOS until very recently even though I have a 
lot of servers that are capable of running it.  That avoidance has been 
mostly the result of my own paranoia about not wanting to "fix" things 
that aren't broken combined with the fact that I didn't have any 
applications that seemed to "want" 64-bit CentOS in order to get a 
performance benefit.  Recently, I decided to take the plunge on a couple 
of new systems as they all had at least 4 64-bit cores, 2-4gb RAM, and 
large disk arrays and one of my newer applications seems to work better 
with 64-bit Linux (so I'm told...it actually seems less stable to me).

I haven't noticed any real benefit and I also haven't noticed any 
problems since these are all server systems.  I suspect all the gotchas 
come into play when you want to run desktop/workstation applications 
that might not have been cleaned up for 64-bits yet...especially if 
they're only available as binaries.

Cheers,