[Tfug] 32bit os on 64 bit system

[Jim March]

Well I have found one advantage, and it's a *weird* one given the history:

Adobe's Flash player now works *better* in 64bit, if you know the
"secret": what they've called an "alpha" 64bit variant is no such
thing, it's full release quality and the best Linux flash player I've
seen, but labeled "alpha" so they don't piss off Microsoft or Apple
with 64bit Flash in Linux first.

Because they've labeled it "alpha" the major distros like Ubuntu
aren't pushing it.  So you have to manually install it, but it's not
that hard.

My notes for Karmic 64 can be applied to most other distros:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1241313

This is the BEST, fastest and most stable Linux flash player I've
used, bar none.  Full-screen Hulu is glitch-free, more or less the
acid test.

I'm also noticing a leeeetle bit of a speed boost with my XP virtual
machine (under Virtualbox).

WARNING: because 64bit eats more RAM, I would say the minimum RAM
before considering 64bit is 1.5giggig, and 3gig would be better.  Esp.
below 1.5gig, 32bit's memory savings matter a lot.  Once you hit 4gig
64bit hits it's stride, and past that it's downright crucial.

Jim