x86_64 in FC4?

[Chip Turner]

"Eric S. Raymond" <esr at thyrsus.com> writes:

> Elliot Lee <sopwith at redhat.com>:
>> I'm not yet sure whether we'll have PowerPC included - it would help to
>> have someone from that team give a summary of the status of rawhide on
>> that arch.
>
> I just got an Opteron box.  It would be real nice if the FC4 test 1 disks
> included 64-bit kernel RPMS and a handful of 64-bit builds for the most
> speed-critical stuff (Perl & Python interpreters, Open Office, etc.).

That's assuming 64bit is faster than 32bit... which it isn't
necessarily.

But even if it were, you don't want a 64bit version of perl and python
on a mostly 32bit box.  Trust me; you don't want to mix 32 and 64 with
those languages.  Either you end up with a rats nest of other 64 bit
apps (vim, xchat, gaim, mod_perl, apache -- after all, those link
against perl and/or python, and that means they have to be 64bit also)
or you end up trying somehow to get both a 64bit and a 32bit perl on
the same box (which means maintaining each CPAN module in two places,
etc).  Madness in both directions.

Install the full 64bit distro if you want 64bit, otherwise stick with
32bit.

Chip

-- 
Chip Turner                   cturner at redhat.com
                              Red Hat, Inc.