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How much trouble is a 64-bit OS right now?

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40hz:
This just in from our friends over at Heise Online (emphasis added):

Link: http://www.h-online.com/open/Fedora-project-plans-to-use-64-bit-and-PAE-kernels--/news/112724

Fedora project plans to use 64-bit and PAE kernels

The Fedora team plans to optimise the Linux distribution's versions for various system architectures. The 32-bit version for the x86 platform is to be built for i586 instead of i386 as it is currently. Given compatible hardware, an x86-64 kernel is to be used as standard, even when installing the distribution's 32-bit version. Wherever possible on 32-bit x86 systems, the developers intend to use a default PAE kernel. They will continue to use a 32-bit kernel for the 32-bit live CD.

The main advantage of using a x86-64 kernel in a 32-bit operating system is the considerably larger memory address range the kernel can make use of, allowing for systems with over 4GB of RAM. Due to the 32-bit userland, users won't need special 64-bit versions of their programs. 32-bit plug-ins for programs like Firefox run without the tricks that the users of the 64-bit version have to resort to, for example nspluginwrapper. The Fedora Engineering Steering Committee, which decides on the integration of new features into the distribution, has accepted the changes proposed for the forthcoming Fedora 11.
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Very nice! 8)

f0dder:
Interesting move, 40hz!

This should probably work just fine. It's been my experience, though, that trying to run a full 64bit version of linux (ie., including userland) can be more trouble than it's worth. At least on gentoo, not everything is available for 64bit, and then you have to fiddle with running a mix of 64bit and 32bit software, which is somewhat more bothersome than doing the same on Windows...

40hz:
Interesting move, 40hz!

This should probably work just fine. It's been my experience, though, that trying to run a full 64bit version of linux (ie., including userland) can be more trouble than it's worth.
-f0dder (February 26, 2009, 12:20 AM)
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I agree. But it does make a lot more sense to use the capabilities of the actual chip architecture and then do a 32-bit userland for all the 32-bit code out there. Or at least it does on paper. ;)  Neater, cleaner, and fewer surprises all the way around if it works. It will be real interesting to see it in action once it's out.

Best of all, we can expect to see Fedora's approach get quickly incorporated into most other distros if it shows clear advantages. That's the real beauty of Linux's open licensing. GPL may not be uber-popular with some application developers. But when it comes to system programming and development, it's almost like a gift from heaven.

To their credit, Fedora definitely has the coders and resources to pull it off if they want to. Guess we'll have to wait and see. The latest release of Fedora is winning back a lot of their old fans and making plenty of new ones.



Fingers crossed... 8)

urlwolf:
Just as an update for completeness, I went with server 2008. Feels solid. However, it feels like linux has an edge for development (more 64-bits dev tools, easier to find packages). If you plan to do say python on 64-bits, almost no 3rd party libs are to be found, it seems. Same for R (there's a company, Revolution R, selling a 64-bit of R!).

I wonder if really win 64 is a wise decision.

I just cannot find informed post comparing different 64-bit OSs for dev. purposes...

f0dder:
I wonder if really win 64 is a wise decision.-urlwolf (April 06, 2009, 09:00 AM)
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It is :)

The Visual Studio Express editions are free, and while they iirc don't come with x64 compilers, you can get those from the PlatformSDK. Sure, there's a lot of closed-source libraries that aren't available in x64 form... but then again, there's a lot of opensource code that doesn't compile cleanly for x64 as well.

But really, if your applications don't need 64-bit, why port them? Most applications gain zero advantages whatsoever from a recompile, they only become (slightly) bigger and consume (slightly) more memory.

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