Rickey Moore wrote: > Not being familiar with 64bit, when it comes time to install, do I just > let the install process do a 64bit install and will 32bit still be > supported? Or, install with 32bit and add 64bit after? I really am > clueless. This will be another learning curve... no problems only > opportunities? <cringe> Ric You can either download a different x86_64 .iso from the usual places, or install 32 bit as normal. 32 bit installs still work perfectly, but you won't be able to run any 64 bit software. Most Free Software will compile and run as 64 bits without any problem. The main exceptions are OpenOffice (although it's getting there) and Wine (which is mainly intended to run 32 bit and 16 bit Windows programs). These are provided as 32 bit binaries, even on x86_64. Unless you know what's happening, this isn't visible -- the only thing you might notice is that 32 bit and 64 bit versions of some libraries are in memory at the same time. If you go for the 64 bit route, then 32 bit *programs* will be supported. 32 bit *plugins* (e.g. for web browsers) will not be supported unless you install a 32 bit version of the browser. (This isn't too difficult but might take a bit of thinking about. See http://www.znark.com/blog/articles/2006/04/17/32-bit-firefox-on-fedora for one set of instructions). 32 bit kernel modules will not be supported. This isn't the limitation that it used to be -- there are 64 bit drivers for Nvidia and ATI cards. Hope this helps, James. -- E-mail address: james | "We completely deny the allegations, and we're @westexe.demon.co.uk | trying to identify the alligators."
