On a local lug, a statement was made that not a lot of 64 bit software is available for the amd chips yet. With gentoo at least, isnt this largely untrue: if you have the arch set correctly, are you not building 64 bit software, and only 32 bit where 32 bit specific instructions are specified???
An what about the 64 bit binary distros???
Seems to be more a microsoft viewpoint.
Hard to say what they were talking about. I'm inclined to think they meant that you can build a 64 bit Linux environment, but most software running would actually use 32 bit. db, compiling, heavy image or music manipulation being the obvious exceptions.
Solaris was similar 4-5 years ago. You really had to look for 64 bit software. 64 bit top was essential assuming you were running a 64 bit kernel, but for many other system tools 32 bit was fine as they ran faster without the 64 bit overhead. If I were running a project I'd ask myself if I really needed to be 64 bit. If I'm building a spread sheet program, maybe that answer is yes. If I'm writing a terminal client, maybe that answer is no.
kashani
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