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Any XP users switching to Windows 7 yet?

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40hz:
I'm actually moving full-time linux. But win7/w2008 was ok.
-urlwolf (November 19, 2009, 12:55 PM)
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@urlwolf - Just out of curiosity - which distro do you use or plan on using?  :)

JavaJones:
I haven't seen any recent benchmarks actually showing *any* performance hit from 32 bit apps on 64 bit OS. The only time I ever saw evidence of such a thing was back when 64 bit Windows was first coming out (XP x64), and things have come a long way since then. Certainly there is a theoretical reason why it might have a performance impact, but practically speaking I don't think there is one.

Also there is a way for developers to compile 32 bit apps such that they can take advantage of more memory on properly configured 32 bit systems. The /largeaddressaware flag I believe is what does it, and it lets an app theoretically access up to 3/4GB of RAM even on a 32 bit Windows OS using the /3gb boot switch. What's more interesting though is that apps compiled in this way when they are run on a 64 bit OS actually *do* get up to 4GB of RAM, and if the machine has enough memory, they can really get access then to twice as much memory as they used to have. In many cases this is enough to make moving to a 64 bit app version unnecessary.

In short there's really little or no reason not to go 64 bit these days. I honestly wish MS had just not published a 32 bit version of Win7 (except maybe for Netbooks - but hey wouldn't that be a much better differentiator than removing features!?). Essentially every new CPU these days supports 64 bit, and many older ones besides.

- Oshyan

superboyac:
I'm actually moving full-time linux. But win7/w2008 was ok.
-urlwolf (November 19, 2009, 12:55 PM)
--- End quote ---

@urlwolf - Just out of curiosity - which distro do you use or plan on using?  :)


-40hz (November 19, 2009, 01:02 PM)
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Yes, I'm curious also.  Zridling recommends opensuse and KDE (i think).

Darwin:
I haven't seen any recent benchmarks actually showing *any* performance hit from 32 bit apps on 64 bit OS.
-JavaJones (November 19, 2009, 01:02 PM)
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I'm more or less going on "hearsay" - the latest Windows Secrets newsletter discusses the pros and cons of 32 bit vs 64 bit and this is one of the things that they mention. I honestly didn't notice a difference when I made the move, even though most of my software is 32 bit.

EDITED for clarity  :-[

JavaJones:
Honestly I think the 32 bit on 64 bit performance issue is mostly a myth (in practice - in theory there is a genuine reason for it) that has been perpetuated. I'll clam up on that if I see some real-world benchmarks to the contrary though. ;)

But regardless, as someone who has used a 64 bit OS consistently for the last several years, I can say the difference is negligible at most.

- Oshyan

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