64-bit RPM/APT based systems - Worth it?

[Bill McGonigle]

On Oct 29, 2005, at 20:24, Brian Chabot wrote:

> How backward-compatible are they with 32-bit apps?  I know there would
> be a certain lossin performance, but for instance, would a commercial
> version of UT2004 for Linux be able to run on a 64-bit system?

Someone will correct me if I'm mistaken, but as I understand it x86-64 
is an instruction set addition to IA32.  So it's not a 64-bit chip like 
an Alpha, it's a 64-bit chip like a PowerPC. A fundamentally 32-bit 
chip with provisions for 64-bit operations and memory addressing.

So, AFAIK, you can run a 32-bit distro just fine on them (unlike 
Itanium) which will leave some of the silicon idle, but when a 
compelling 64-bit OS comes out you're good to go.

-Bill

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