Pros and Cons of amd64 (versus i386).

[Tim Middleton]

Skipping all of your technical questions I'll tell you my experience. The
only regret i have is one that makes me sometimes wish I'd not upgraded my
desktop 64 bit... the dri drivers for xorg lock up my box (ATI card). This
has been a thorn in my side for over 6 months now, but I just haven't had
the time to try to debug and deal with it...  

Other than that, things have worked out quite nice. The way I get around the
occasional software compatibility problems is that I run 32 bit linux
emulation for a couple of things... amazingly enough this works (though i
seem to recall I had to hack a Make file somewhere in ports to make it
ignore DRI or something... sorry, hazy memory). I don't use it very often,
so I don't mind. Until there are 64 bit versions for FreeBsd I have
OpenOffice 2, and Skype, and a couple of other things running as 32bit
linux apps. 

I'm actually just running generic kernel these days... i just can't be
bothered compiling even a kernel for my desktop system... that's how lazy
(or busy) I am. Works fine.  


-- 
Tim Middleton | Vex.Net    | One afternoon, disgusted, bravo, you fall 
x at veX.net     | VexTech.ca | asleep. --T.Lilburn (MS)