[CentOS] 32-bit vs 64-bit CentOS on 64-bit hardware

Mon Apr 16 20:32:19 UTC 2007
Stephen John Smoogen <smooge at gmail.com>

On 4/16/07, chrism at imntv.com <chrism at imntv.com> wrote:
> I was asked this question today and frankly, I didn't know the answer.
> So I thought I'd post it here....
>
> If you don't need to access greater than 4GB RAM, is there any benefit
> to running the 64-bit version of CentOS vs the 32-bit one?  That's
> assuming, of course, that the target machine utilizes a 64-bit capable
> processor.  I hadn't seen any noticeable difference, but I haven't done
> any benchmarking either.
>

If you need to have processes larger than about 2GB you need to use 64
Bit versions of CentOS.

> On a desktop machine, the 32-bit version seems preferable since there
> are closed source creature comfort apps that are not yet available in
> 64-bit land, correct?
>

Correct. While there is multilib to try and eleviate the pain of
this.. I find it and the Debian chroot option both more painful than
they should be.


-- 
Stephen J Smoogen. -- CSIRT/Linux System Administrator
How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed
in a naughty world. = Shakespeare. "The Merchant of Venice"