[dundee] Linux on the desktop

[Andrew Clayton]

On Tue, 2004-01-13 at 15:09, Jonathan Barber wrote:
[snip]

> > Bigger binaries and can have slower performance.
> 
> WRT performance, are you refering to running binaries compiled for 32bit
> x86 platforms on 64bit platforms, or is this something else.
> 

No. You can't easily take a 32bit ELF Linux/x86 binary and run it on a 
Linux/Sparc64 for example...

What I'm meaning is, using, Linux/Sparc64 for example. The kernel is
64bit, userland is 32bit. If you compile stuff as 64bit then the
binaries will be bigger and will likely run slower than their 32bit
brothers. 

Basically, IMHO, if you (anyone in general) think going to 64bits is
suddenly going to make everything faster, then you are going to be
dissapointed. Generally the main reason for using 64bit's is for
accessing large amounts of memory (where large may be >4GB). Or when
doing BIG science and using 64bit values is a help.

For the average home user, they aren't going to see much benefit.
 
Hmm. A quick check on a Solaris 7/SPARC64 system shows that the general
userland is only 32bit.

(pts/1) [andrew at rts:~]$ file /bin/ls
/bin/ls:        ELF 32-bit MSB executable SPARC Version 1, dynamically
linked, stripped
(pts/1) [andrew at rts:~]$


If you have a 64bit system and can run 32bit binaries, then your
probably better off doing so. If not I wouldn't loose any sleep over
it.. ;)



> Do you have any links handy?
> 

Sorry no handy links... just what I've read and learnt in posts from the
likes of Ben Collins (Debian SPARC maintainer) and Dave Miller (SPARC
and Networking maintainer, Linux Kernel).




Andrew