[OT] End-user uses for x86-64 (was: Why are still not at 64 bits)

[Ben Scott]

On 2/16/07, Jon 'maddog' Hall <maddog at li.org> wrote:
> You seem to be defining every "end user" as "mom-and-pop-home", or "bank
> teller".  In the scientific and engineering world ...

  NOTE WELL: The following exasperated rant is written with a smile on
my face and laughter in my throat.  :-)

  Oh, for crying out loud, *LIKE I WROTE IN MY MESSAGE*, "heavy duty"
computing is outside of the scope of this discussion.  Yes, I am
explicitly defining the term "end-user" that way, for the purposes of
this discussion, because that's what I'm interested in.  It's already
*well established* that large memories or bigger integers benefit
heavy duty computing.  Much of that world has *already* moved to
64-bit computing for that very reason.  Which is why we *don't need to
have a discussion about it*.  :-)

  People doing that are not doing end-user computing.  Nobody (well,
almost nobody) models complex weather systems as a casual hobby.  They
do it because it's they're freaking *job*.  It's not *end-user
computing*.  End-user computing is stuff my mom does, or your Aunt
Marge or the high school teenager.  :-)

  Meanwhile, I find the question of "Will the end-user -- the "mom and
pop", the "bank teller", the "home user", the MySpace people, the big
list of things they do I wrote in my original message -- will *they*
reap any benefit from x86-64?", that question is more interesting.  If
there's a compelling reason for the *that* population to move to
x86-64, then things get interesting.

  If there is *not* a compelling case for that, well, I expect 64-bit
computing will remain in the domain of the "heavy duty" -- servers,
multimedia production, engineering, scientific, all the back-room
number-crunching and bit-moving operations where Linux already has a
significant foothold.  People in that space might use Linux (or
Solaris or HP-UX or some other non-doze OS) precisely *because*
Microsoft's support of 64-bit computing sucks so much.

  But meanwhile, in the "end-user" space, if some compelling reasons
to use x86-64 exists, then that's one more selling point for Linux in
the end-user space, and might well contribute to critical mass.  Which
is why I find this question interesting, and how I think it ties into
FLOSS.  It could be part of that "killer app" the pundits are always
talking about.

  Is that clear enough, or do I need diagrams?  ;-)

-- Ben