On 12/08/2009 08:02 PM, Gregory Maxwell wrote:
On Tue, Dec 8, 2009 at 12:47 PM, Ralf Corsepius<rc040203@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
That's one side, the other side is:
* Larger demands on RAM (x86_64 is more demanding on memory
requirements).
Even if it were a full doubling (which is the absolute worst case
possible), it would only be pushing the effective cost of memory back
roughly 18 months or so. In reality the increase should be much less
than 2x.
Correct - I didn't say "twice", I only said "more".
On systems with smaller memory (or with soldered memory) this "more" can
be the "drop" which may be responsible for exceeding memory demands to
beyond physical memory and be the cause of swapping.
* More packages (rpms) to cope with.
Hmm? I'm not sure what you're talking about there.
multilibs.
x86_64 means coping with more packages in an installation (ca. 1/3
more). This has an impact on maintenance complexity (parallel
installation of i386 packages), on metadata sizes (yum bandwith
demands), etc.
* The "faster" is hardly sensible to ordinary users.
You could equally say that the difference in memory consumption is not
relevant to most ordinary users.
No. At the very point a system starts swapping, memory consumption will
become sensible.
Fedora has already chosen to make the 32bit builds incompatible with
pre-686 systems for performance gains
Yes, a decision I consider to be a Fedora managment mistake.
Seems to me, as if some people in Fedora's leadership don't want to
understand that being able to deploy Linux on "old" or "recycled"
hardware used to be one big selling point in Linux.
Certainly, Fedora devs tend to be equipped with modern HW, but it's a
mistake to believe everybody is.
I think if your position is that most users don't care about
performance and other things (like compatibility) are more important
then you should strongly promote x86_64 Fedora for everyone who can
use it.
Not quite. My position actually is: Most users don't care much about
1-2% improved performance nor about improved internals (more registers
etc.), as long as "their system" does what they want it to do.
That said, these users don't actually care about using 64bit or 32bit
Linux, as long as "their applications" behave "reasonable" and as long
as the OS is easy to use.
Or differently: I don't need a car with a 250kw engine and 7 seats to
drive to the supermarket. My 8-years of VW Polo with its 50kW engine
will also do ;)
Ralf
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