32 & 64 ?

[#1]

Mint 13 & I guess a few others come in 32 & 64 bit versions. Assuming you are using a dual processor is there any reason why you would not want to use the 64 bit version ?
Windows 7 is available in 32 & 64 bit versions but I understand not as many peripheral devices work with the 64 bit version, does the same apply in Linux ?

[#2]

This might help with the decision https://help.ubuntu.com/community/32bit_and_64bit

[#3]

Well I personally have been using 64bit for the past 4 years with no problems. The only machines I run 32bit on are on older processors (i.e. 32bit ones) like my EEE & laptop.

[#4]

me too.

[#5]

Same here.  I think the last time I saw a problem it was with Flash player.

[#6]

There was the occasion a few years ago that some things weren't available in 64bit form, the answer, just compile it yourself  Unlike M$ systems you can usually get access to the source code and building instructions. Not so common these days. About the only things I need to compile are things that are only distributed in source code no binarys.
With the advent of ppa's and pretty good repositories there is less need these days to compile it unless you want to tweak it somehow.

[#7]

96
(Sorry, couldn't resist the temptation given the topic title  )

[#8]

That's nothing.
Once worked on a computer with a 16 byte (128 bit) virtual address space.
Only the first 48 bits was supported by hardware though. 

[#9]

Quote from: jelv

96 (Sorry, couldn't resist the temptation given the topic title   )

32 + 64 would be 96 but 32 & 64 is actually 0  
back on subject... I've been using various 64bit flavours of  *nix for many years without any major problems... the occasional old bit of hardware may not have worked but generally 64bit driver support has been very good.

[#10]

64bit is the way forward. I used to run 32bit as flash wasn't available on 64, and you can't build your own flash (grr, proprietary software).
This has been fixed for some time now though, so isn't a problem any more.

[#11]

Agreed, 64bit is a no-brainer for linux these days. The extra memory footprint was also concern originally as you are dealing with 8 byte chunks instead of 4 but not an issue now and you get access to the extra features like more registers.    The initial work for 64bit conversion was mid-90s, heck the film titanic was rendered on 64bit DEC Alphas so the code has had a decent amount of flushing out. Shame about  flash, you can of course run the older 32bit build but there were some 64bit builds of flash but naturally Adobe stopped *sigh.
karl.