Mandriva Desktop 2011 review

I only skimmed the first page of the article, but it's idiotic: first he installs the 32-bit version instead of the 64-bit version, and then he sets the screen size at 800x600, and has the gall to complain about things not looking right. Is he trying to see how this thing runs on a PC from 1997? No one sells x86-compatible 32-bit CPUs any more; everything is 64-bit, so even bothering with a 32-bit version is just dumb. And no one makes monitors in 800x600 any more; even netbooks have better resolution than that.

> ....so even bothering with a 32-bit version is just dumb.

We've had that discussion here before. The consensus seemed to be that for most people, 32 bit would be slightly faster and they simply didn't need the advantages of a 64bit OS at this time. Some people do, of course.

Missing t corrected.

Quoting:The consensus seemed to be that for most people, 32 bit would be slightly faster and they simply didn't need the advantages of a 64bi OS at this time.

And a 32 bit Linux OS will handle > 4 Gig of RAM OOTB, so for most people even when running 8 Gig of RAM a 32 Bit Linux OS is just fine.

Isn't 64-bit supposed to be faster, especially for things like compiling and rendering?

The MMX/SSE/3DNow! extensions don't benefit from wider registers in 64-bit mode; the only advantage there is double the register file. Still, vector operations vastly improve media manipulations in any mode.

I'll get back to you on the compiling thing.

>>>>No one sells x86-compatible 32-bit CPUs any more; everything is 64-bit,<<<<

I just have been spending a lot of time in computer shops the last 2 months. I can safely say that 50% of units for sale are still 32 bit compatible, and that 95% of people run 32 bit. Even that is overkill, as for what they do, windows98SE will be just fine

The Asus Eee Desktop PC is 32-bit.

nikkels: i guess you mean 50% are 32bit only, i sure hope that most of the machines are 32bit compatible :-)

greetings, eMBee.

But the 800x600 thing is crazy...

nikkels: i guess you mean 50% are 32bit only, i sure hope that most of the machines are 32bit compatible :-)

Yes, sorry about that. Maybe I should increase my morning dose of caffeine from 5 cups to 10 :-)

Are the Atom processors 64 bit? I was thinking they were 32bit only. Time to research.

OK, the early Atom's, and apparently even many current ones, are 32 bit.

Per Wikipedia, the Atom Z5xx, Z6xx, and N2xx serious are 32 bit. The Atom 2xx, 3xx, N4xx, D4xx, N5xx and D5xx are 64 bit capable.

Obviously, I can't speak to the percentages of those chips being used.