On 16 April 2012 10:14, Chase Douglas <[email protected]> wrote: > On 04/15/2012 11:03 PM, Steve Langasek wrote: >> Hi folks, >> >> Back at last UDS in November, we discussed whether it was time to switch to >> presenting 64-bit images as the default image for desktop, like they already >> are for server, now that all new desktop hardware is 64-bit and multiarch is >> a reality. >> >> There was a rough consensus at UDS that the blockers were solved, but that >> the question should be taken to ubuntu-devel to gather more input. That >> input-gathering is happening much later than intended, but here we are now. >> >> The blueprint at >> <https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/foundations-p-64bit-by-default> >> includes links to some data gathered by the inimitable Colin King, showing >> that in terms of performance, there are both pros and cons for switching to >> amd64: memory consumption goes up, and therefore power consumption goes up >> if the system is making more use of swap, but on the other side, most >> CPU-bound operations will be faster on amd64. So there is no clear >> performance argument for preferring one over the other. > > Many netbooks only support up to 2G of memory, let alone the fact that > they often ship with 1G. I currently have a netbook with 2G, and I am > well over 1G of memory used with only one tab open in chromium and no > other apps open. When I start to swap it can get near painfully slow. > Moving to amd64 would only exacerbate the issue, forcing more swapping > on an already slow machine. > > I'm not sure that we should hold up progress for netbooks, but it is an > issue we need to be aware of.
Also, it's only recently that new netbooks consistently support 64-bit OS's. I'm sure in some parts of the world there are still shelves full of non-64-bit-compatible Atom netbooks. These are the non-64-bit-capable Atom chips: http://ark.intel.com/search/advanced/?s=t&FamilyText=Intel%C2%AE%20Atom%E2%84%A2%20Processor&EM64=false Jeremy Bicha -- ubuntu-devel mailing list [email protected] Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel
