Re: [gentoo-amd64] About to install on a 64 bit system. Advice wanted.

[Florian Philipp]

Am 09.12.2010 06:29, schrieb Dale:
> Mateusz Arkadiusz Mierzwinski wrote:
[...]
>>     Frank Peters wrote:
>>
>>         On Wed, 08 Dec 2010 15:17:18 -0600
>>         Dale<rdalek1967@×××××.com <mailto:rdalek1967@×××××.com>>  wrote:
[...]
>>             What are some things that I should watch for and enable
>>             that isn't so
>>             obvious for someone new to 64 bit?
[...]
>>         The first thing to decide is whether or not you want a pure 64-bit
>>         system or a 64-bit system that keeps 32-bit capability.
>>
>>         I am a purist.  I left 32-bit programs in the dust a long time
>>         ago.
>>         But as a consequence there are some things that I will miss
>>         because
>>         they are available in 32-bit packages only.  An example would be
>>         Acroread, the PDF viewer, from Adobe.  Without Acroread, you will
>>         only view pdf files through the 64-bit xpdf.  The Intel C++
>>         compiler is another example.  In fact, most commercial software
>>         that bothers to release a Linux version will do so in 32-bit
>>         format only.
[...]
>> You can set it in KERNEL by disabling 32 bit application support and
>> recompiling GLIBC and GCC without MULTILIB ;). Try also running 32 bit
>> app. System is not slower or anything else wrong happens. If You drop
>> 32-bit support You cannot use WINE and load PE32 apps (aka Win32).
>>
[...]
> I don't use Wine.  I have never heard of PE32 so I don't guess I have a
> need for it either.  lol   It sounds like I should go pure 64 bit.
> Anyone disagree with that?  Someone mentioned pdf files but I can use
> KDE's program for that as I do now.  I can use OOo as a backup too.
> [...]

Didn't you post on gentoo-user that you watch youtube videos? Well, the
currently stable version of adobe-flash (10.1.102.64) is 32bit-only.
That will change again with the next higher version in the tree but the
switch to 32bit can happen again when Adobe decides once again that it
doesn't need to fix its security bugs for amd64.

You might also want to think about pre-compiled OSS applications in
portage (`eix -- -bin`). Not all of them come in pure 64bit flavor.

AFAIK there are only two reasons to avoid a multilib setup:
1. Disk space (~230MB on my system)
2. Compile time on packages that support multilib.

I don't think either of these will be an issue for your new system ;)
IMHO the increased flexibility is well worth the effort.

Hope this helps,
Florian Philipp