On Tue, 2006-07-11 at 14:54 +0200, Arnold Krille wrote: > 2006/7/11, Dave Phillips <dlphillips@xxxxxxxxxx>: > > I'm considering trying a new distro. Gentoo and Ubuntu are > > recommended, so I might look at them. However, my main question is: Do I > > necessarily want to install a kernel for a 64-bit CPU ? IIUC I'm better > > off running most Linux audio applications in 32-bit mode, which I > > understand occurs seamlessly. But do I need to use a 32-bit kernel for > > those apps, or do I need to install the 64-bit ? (Is that a dumb question?) > > First I recommend gentoo, its nice, its cool, you don't install things > you don't need. > > Second: If you have a 64bit processor you definitly want to make use > of it. Most apps nowadays calculate with double-numbers. these run a > lot faster on 64bit. not really, they don't. floating point is done on a different processor. greater memory bandwidth on some processors/motherboards etc. can make working with 80-bit floats faster, but a 64 bit CPU itself has no real effect. also, i don't know many apps that use 80 bit FP, for audio or anything else that matter. there are some, but not many.
