The “Break it Down” Blog

If your a Mac person your not going to care either way, but for you Windows user 64-bit Vista has some things to offer……

A 64-bit computer can theoretically process twice as much information as a 32-bit computer. This makes a 64-bit computer a good choice if you’re working with video, large database searches, or games and other programs that require complex calculations and a lot of memory. A 32-bit computer works very well for most programs, for example, spreadsheet programs, web browsers, and word processing programs will run at about the same speed on either a 32-bit or a 64-bit computer.

In the early day of computing with IBM laying down the roots decided on a 32-bit system which uses 32 bits to refer to the address of each byte of memory. 2^32 = 4.2 billion, which means a memory address that’s 32 bits long can only refer to 4.2 billion unique addresses creating a maximum memory cap of 4gb. They decided the 4GB of memory cap was so far out of the realm of possibility that this would never be met. As Borat would say “………..NOT!”.

With this limit Vista 32-bit has a practical cap of 3.2gb, and 64-bit Vista you can fully utilize up to 16TB of memory. As of this point the thinking is that we will never reach the new memory ceiling in 64-bit computing of 16.8 million Terra bytes…. I’m sure our great great grandchildren will think otherwise.

64-bit Windows vs 32-bit Windows

• Virtual memory
  • 16 TB, 4 GB
• Paging file
  • 512 TB, 16 TB
• System cache
  • 1 TB, 1 GB

With 64-bit you can utilize various security features such as Kernel Patch Protection or “PatchGuard”. This stops the Vista kernel from being patched with malicious software by stopping drivers from replacing kernel services. Also AMD and Intel support hardware backed Data Execution Protection or “DEP”, which helps to prevent the buffer overflows that are commonly used in electronic attacks. Lastly, “Address space layout randomization” or ASLR, which randomizes the positions of key data like the base of the executable, position of libraries, heap, and stack in a process’ address space. This make it nearly impossible for an attacker because they would have to guess the position in memory of all the data that they would be trying to attack.

When deciding which version to install, you must consider some questions:

• Is all of your harware 64-bit? Any Core2Duo or Xenon is capable of running 64 bit. Make sure you hardware manufacturers have 64-bit drivers for you hardware (Videocard, soundcard, etc.)
• Is your software compatible? All Most 32-bit software will run just fine on 64-bit system. However if you are using legacy 16-bit software, in most cases you will find yourself S.O.L. It is noteworthy that some 32-bit applications use a 16-bit installer and may have problems on a 64-bit system.
• How much “peace of mind” do you want? I know every time I have and issue, the first question that pops into my head is “Is this a 64-bit issue?” It may not be worth it to you to have these issues or concerns.

As of right now, Vista 64-bit has a slight advantage over the 32-bit version performance wise. But on the flip side, due to the stringent drivers requirements, the 32-bit version will give you less headaches.

Even Microsoft Says:

“The 64-bit editions of Windows Vista are for the serious computer users” If you have very high security demands “64-bit editions are ideal for engineering (CAD/CAM) work, digital content creation, scientific/technical computing, and even demanding financial analysis”

Rumors are the next version of Windows (code name “Vienna”) will be 64-bit only. So at some point we will all have to make the switch… It’s just at which point do we jump on the bandwagon?

Riyad’s Take

I think Chris has made excellent points in his post above; the ups and the downs. I personally have tried 64-bit Windows 2003 and 64-bit Ubuntu for 1 year and 6 months respectively. My experience with 64-bit operating systems have always been negative, in the regard of:

• There always seems to be some driver I need that has no 64-bit version. It’s never a major driver like a Video driver, it’s something innocuous like a Bluetooth driver, Wireless driver, Mouse driver, etc.
• I have run into multiple situations where I could not find a 64-bit version of a video codec I wanted and thus couldn’t play certain videos.
• Java still does not have support for the Java Browser Plugin or Java Web Start technology on 64-bit platforms (Windows or Linux).
• I’ve had strange rendering issues with not just Java but other .NET applications on 64-bit versions of Windows in the past and I still see reports of them from time to time today on Vista 64-bit which makes me think they are still hanging around.
• Lesser known software you need maybe have a stupid install or system-requirement-checker. On multiple occasions on Windows 64-bit I would run into InstallShield or Microsoft Installers that had no idea what the 64-bit OS was and would simply refuse to run. This also occurred with some shittier apps and not just the installers.
• Game Compatibility was a problem. You can thank me for the 64-bit builds of Half-Life 1 and Counter Strike from like 2 years ago… that was right after I installed Windows 2003 and then installed Steam, then realized all Half-Life 1 titles simply failed to load due to a poor platform check in the executable. After a nice dialog with Valve, it went into the next Steam patch.

Overall as a consumer OS, I find 64-bit operating systems terrible because of the compatibility issues. If you are a hardcore tech guy and do a lot of software development or scientific apps, 64-bit might be a nice upgrade for you, but otherwise… I think for at least another year 32-bit is the way to go. For the hardcore gamers out there, that does pose a problem of memory limitations (2GB/3GB) in Windows Vista 32-bit… I don’t have a great answer for you yet.