Linux Mint 8 has been released

[sourceninja]

It's not difficult to install a 64-bit kernel with a 32-bit userland to give you the benefits of both being able to use all of your memory and not wasting memory on 64-bit processes that don't need it.

Now what I'd really like is a distro with a 64bit kernel and universal libraries that are both 32 and 64bit. That way I can install 32bit apps if I need to without trying to hunt down a bunch of 32bit libraries to meet the dependancies.

It's kinda too late for that now though, almost everything works 64bit.

 

[Nothinman]

Now what I'd really like is a distro with a 64bit kernel and universal libraries that are both 32 and 64bit. That way I can install 32bit apps if I need to without trying to hunt down a bunch of 32bit libraries to meet the dependancies.

It's kinda too late for that now though, almost everything works 64bit.

I hope that never happens, I don't want my install size doubled for no good reason.

 

[sourceninja]

Like I said, there is really no point in doing it now. But it was a lot better then having to try to find enough libs to run the apps that didn't work 64bit back when a lot of stuff didn't work 64bit.

Plus, the great thing about linux is nothing ever needs to be mandatory. But it would have made a nice option during the dark times of the 32-64 conversion.

This is one of the things I love about doing development for osx. I'm writing a framework right now. I can just release it as a single framework download that supports any arch I want (great for other developers who are targeting multiple platforms) or I can release it for x86_64 only (great for us writing x86_64 only applications).

Or I could release the source and let them hash it out.

 

[Nothinman]

Like I said, there is really no point in doing it now. But it was a lot better then having to try to find enough libs to run the apps that didn't work 64bit back when a lot of stuff didn't work 64bit.

Plus, the great thing about linux is nothing ever needs to be mandatory. But it would have made a nice option during the dark times of the 32-64 conversion.

This is one of the things I love about doing development for osx. I'm writing a framework right now. I can just release it as a single framework download that supports any arch I want (great for other developers who are targeting multiple platforms) or I can release it for x86_64 only (great for us writing x86_64 only applications).

Or I could release the source and let them hash it out.

There was never any point in doing it. I've been running a full 64-bit Debian sid for about 5 years now and the only thing I can remember giving me any real problems was flash. For Linux there was virtually no "32-64 conversion" because Linux was running on 64-bit architectures for many years before that. Yea, some of the desktop stuff like Org had some initial problems, but those were the exception, not the rule.

 

[sourceninja]

For me, I needed java plugin, flash, and firefox (obviously to deal with those two). Codex support was also lacking, so that required mplayer (plus I wanted mplayer's plugin for firefox, so it had to be 32bit anyway).

That's just off the top of my head. I kept trying every 6 months or so and kept hitting a roadblock somewhere. Last time I tried almost everything worked, but I still hit a roadblock with java requiring 32bit. Hopefully the app that requires java will update itself soon so I can use the openjava stuff. Then I'm golden with everything supported 64 bit.

 

[Nothinman]

For me, I needed java plugin, flash, and firefox (obviously to deal with those two). Codex support was also lacking, so that required mplayer (plus I wanted mplayer's plugin for firefox, so it had to be 32bit anyway).

That's just off the top of my head. I kept trying every 6 months or so and kept hitting a roadblock somewhere. Last time I tried almost everything worked, but I still hit a roadblock with java requiring 32bit. Hopefully the app that requires java will update itself soon so I can use the openjava stuff. Then I'm golden with everything supported 64 bit.

Firefox has worked for as long as I can remember. Thankfully I avoid java at all costs and ndiswrapper took care of flash up until the 64-bit release. It wasn't perfect but it worked well enough, especially considering how shitty flash is by itself.

I may have had a 32-bit mplayer package installed at some point with Marillat's w32codecs package, but I know my current one is 64-bit. With that and the w64codecs package I can't remember the last time it wouldn't play something.

 

[sourceninja]

Yea, my work has a major piece of business logic that runs in the browser via java (Thanks Sungard!). So until it works with version of java that have 64bit browser plugins, I have to have a 32bit browser.

 

[Nothinman]

Did you try it with ndiswrapper? I know most people only used it for flash, but technically it should be able to do any Netscape-style plugin. And there sun-javaX-plugin packages in 64-bit Debian now, no clue how well they work though.

 

[Chiropteran]

I hope that never happens, I don't want my install size doubled for no good reason.

Seriously? You can buy a terabyte hard drive today for less than $80, but you can't spare a few hundred MB of extra OS files to run 32 bit applications?

 

[sourceninja]

Did you try it with ndiswrapper? I know most people only used it for flash, but technically it should be able to do any Netscape-style plugin. And there sun-javaX-plugin packages in 64-bit Debian now, no clue how well they work though.

I never tried the java plugin with ndiswrapper. I just resigned myself to 32bit for now. I really have no legit reason for 64bit at this time. My computer has 4 gigs of memory, I use it to write code and browse the web.

Although I really haven't used my linux desktop in a few months, not since I started loving my macbook pro.

 

[Nothinman]

Seriously? You can buy a terabyte hard drive today for less than $80, but you can't spare a few hundred MB of extra OS files to run 32 bit applications?

Yes, seriously. There are much better ways to handle the situtation than doubling my disk usage for something I don't use. My root filesystem is currently at ~17G used on a 20G volume and I think that's too large. I've been meaning to go through and prune some unused packages and see what I can remove.

I really have no legit reason for 64bit at this time.

Technically I don't either, my machine only has 2G in it. But I did the install years ago and since everything just worked I left it as is.

 

[Rifter]

I have been running 64bit OS's for years now with both MS and Mint/ubuntu. I have never had any issues running 32bit programs or with any hardware. I only have 4GB of ram but i used to have 8GB, when i took 4GB out for the server i kept running 64bit.