32-bit PCs on borrowed time...

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Sailor Enceladus
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#21 Post by Sailor Enceladus »

The most popular problem I see in #puppylinux chatroom with people running Tahr is they can't open Palemoon at all, because it's compiled with SSE2 or whatever, not available on older hardware. To me that makes it obvious that there is still a lot of 32-bit computers. I've never owned a 64-bit capable laptop myself, and perhaps never will, because as john biles said you can get old 32-bit ones for really cheap and still do what you need, without the UEFI/secure boot crap. The Pale Moon issue is so common that I think someone should start a thread on their forums telling them to compile the Linux version for i586 instead.

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Burn_IT
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#22 Post by Burn_IT »

Three out of four of my PCs are 32 bit.
And even the 64 bit one has to run many pieces of 32 bit software simply because there is no 64 bit version or equivalent.

It is often hard work getting the 64 bit machine to do do what I want without resorting to 32 bit stuff.

I have yet to try it with Puppy.
"Just think of it as leaving early to avoid the rush" - T Pratchett

gcmartin

#23 Post by gcmartin »

Emotionally, I can understand the reluctance or refusal. But, I am not the creator of technology.

The creators have srunk the die to an unbelievable size. IBM already has CPUs built on 7nm. And memory changes are about to leap. The Pi has gone to 64bit on their die. And a new neural CPU is coming into real world space.

What the title of this thread suggests is what is happening in our world.

I only share what I am viewing and what my selections are today. As old as I have become, this concern for 32bit is EXACTLY the same concern for 16bit PCs in the 90s. No one, here, even remembers the pundits discussing 8bit vs 16bit.

This world is and will continue to be a user selectable world. I remember my "rejection" to the need of a portable phone and my disclaimers then. But, look at me today. That, in itself, is a teacher to the difference between my emotions and what actually happens in real space. Yes I not only have a portable phone, I have a smart portable phone with a 64bit processor. :idea:

When I dumpster-dive finding a 32bit PC and a 64bit PC and I only have room in the car for 1, which do you think I'm going to take home? If my $25 dollars allows me a choice of a 32bit PC or the 64bit PC, which do you think I will choose? Why? Because I know I can run ANY PUP distro on the 64bit.

Oh well, I out of the discussion at this point.
Last edited by gcmartin on Sat 21 May 2016, 21:13, edited 1 time in total.

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Burn_IT
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#24 Post by Burn_IT »

You need to be saying that no-one remembers 8 vs 16 bit when some of us remember 0 vs 8 bit for PCs!!
"Just think of it as leaving early to avoid the rush" - T Pratchett

starhawk
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#25 Post by starhawk »

At least one eight-bit CPU is still in production...

That would be the Z80. I have one in my TI-83+ graphing calculator from high school...

bark_bark_bark
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#26 Post by bark_bark_bark »

Quoting myself since gcmartin lacks reading comprehension.
bark_bark_bark wrote:Even though 64bit has been around for some time, there is still consumer hardware being manufactured that either is OR restricted to 32bit only. 32-bit never will die and distros dropping 32-bit aren't smart in doing so.
32bit vs 64bit has nothing to do with emotions, it has to do with the state of the tech industry still emphasizing 32bit. You WILL still see tablets being made with 32bit CPUs and 2GB of RAM; Even if those CPUs were 64bit, allowing a 64bit OS to run when the device is locked to 2GB of RAM would be highly impratical and would bog things down badly. It's a fact and it would be nice if you could just see for yourself how the tech industry is working these days.
....

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#27 Post by musher0 »

bark_bark_bark wrote:Quoting myself since gcmartin lacks reading comprehension.
bark_bark_bark wrote:Even though 64bit has been around for some time, there is still consumer hardware being manufactured that either is OR restricted to 32bit only. 32-bit never will die and distros dropping 32-bit aren't smart in doing so.
32bit vs 64bit has nothing to do with emotions, it has to do with the state of the tech industry still emphasizing 32bit. You WILL still see tablets being made with 32bit CPUs and 2GB of RAM; Even if those CPUs were 64bit, allowing a 64bit OS to run when the device is locked to 2GB of RAM would be highly impratical and would bog things down badly. It's a fact and it would be nice if you could just see for yourself how the tech industry is working these days.
You've got a point there, bark_bark_bark.

Conversely, on this HP Compaq dual-core 64-bit notebook, which right now is
running slim-6 (a 32-bit Slacko 6.3.0 derivative), htop shows the computer is
"parsing" the 32 bit operations between the two cores. Unevenly, you'll say, but
still, it's using the two CPUs.

BFN.
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musher0
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gcmartin

#28 Post by gcmartin »

32-bit never will die and distros dropping 32-bit aren't smart in doing so.
Yet I remember
in 1997 wrote:16bit never will die and Operating Systems dropping 16bit aren't smart in doing so.
Years from now, we will have the same discussion about 128bit or neural or ...

Industry will continue moving no matter what we do or think. And consumers, in/out of business, will continue to acquire and discard technology.

Linux as a part of the technology industry will continue for the foreseeables.

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Burn_IT
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#29 Post by Burn_IT »

Not really.
It is soon going to get to the point where the CPU overheads of moving such chunks of data around will exceed the advantage.
The future lies in direct memory movement of data without the need of it passing though the CPU at all.
"Just think of it as leaving early to avoid the rush" - T Pratchett

scientist
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#30 Post by scientist »

32 bit will around for a very,very long time.

Folks said that XP would wither.

Did not happen.

The advantages of 64 vs 32 bit are negligible.
Thanks,
Andy


Slacko 6.3.0 FULL INSTALL
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starhawk
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#31 Post by starhawk »

scientist wrote:The advantages of 64 vs 32 bit are negligible.
I agree, at least as it applies to the everyday dude or dudette at their computer -- in a major part because PAE. Yeah, I know, Windblows doesn't "do" PAE. Too bad. We don't care about Windblows all that much, here, because we're better than that.

Robert123
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#32 Post by Robert123 »

Hello living in NZ I see a lot of people who can't afford new computers and scoop up the old 32bit machines from Trademe with some going for pretty decent prices. Got a lovely T42 Thinkpad from there - got a soft spot for thinkpads.

Anyway I agree that Distros dropping 32bit like Zenwalk and PCLinuxOS is dumb and I stick with 32bit to not have to deal with UEFI and just have a machine that works - my needs a pretty basic for every day use anyway.

Also as this is my first post so Hello to you guys anyway.

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#33 Post by musher0 »

Hello back, Robert 123, and welcome to the Kennels! :)
I hope you enjoy it here!
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slavvo67
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#34 Post by slavvo67 »

I, too am a 32bit fan though I've just recently focused more on the 64bit. Still have a few quality 32bit machines running well at home.

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greengeek
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#35 Post by greengeek »

Robert123 wrote:I stick with 32bit to not have to deal with UEFI and just have a machine that works .
Howdy neighbour! I must agree with you - I am stockpiling 32 bit and early 64bit machines in the hope that I can delay any eventual "need" to convert to the newer UEFI capable 64bit hardware.

Not all "progress" is good progress and as far as I can tell the move to 64bit and in particular UEFI plays into the hands of corporates that want to restrict what the end customer can do to customise their operating systems, and also allows those same corporates to eventually remote control the end-users computing experience.

Happy to stick with the older hardware at least as long as the software does what I need it to, and as long as the mobo capacitors hold out.

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#36 Post by Robert123 »

musher0 wrote:Hello back, Robert 123, and welcome to the Kennels! :)
I hope you enjoy it here!
[/quote]Howdy neighbour! I must agree with you

Thank you nice to be here.

nancy reagan
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Emmabuntus

#37 Post by nancy reagan »

I running
emmabuntus 32 bit for quite some time now. Very complete.


They have an 64 bit as well.


I did -full install- on usb stick. (Applies to all ubuntus)

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1872303

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Burn_IT
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#38 Post by Burn_IT »

I have a "newer" machine that has the newer FU stuff and is 64 bit.
The previous owner obviously felt the same way as I do and turned all the crap off an resorted to the old method.

I haven't yet tried any multi-boot stuff with it as I'm still clearing out all the corporate rubbish before I save a decent disk image.

I've not yet tried 64 bit Puppy on it as the only Puppy I have tried is my emergency USB stick and that worked OK with 32 bit.
"Just think of it as leaving early to avoid the rush" - T Pratchett

Pelo

Just read fatdog 64 topic

#39 Post by Pelo »

Just read fatdog 64 topic to understand why 64 bits users get sad.
They are all searching for 32bits applications they could run with their FatDog 64.
The huge liar for (True for Puppy 64) is that the packages are shown available, but when you launch download, it fails, they dont find the dependancies, because they don't exist :) (Tharpup 64)
My computer is 64 bits, running 32 bits apps since 4 years now. Is that a shame, no.
I admit that boot is faster.
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