[LAU] OT: 64 vs 32 bit?

[Joshua Boyd]

On Mon, Sep 27, 2010 at 10:30:12PM +0200, Fritz Meissner wrote:
> Yes, you can install the 32 bit version. From what I have heard, the
> performance difference is not significant, but the major benefit of 64
> bit is being able to address more than 4 GB of memory, which is the
> limit of what a 32 bit OS can use.

For workstation/desktop users, is that really a bigger difference than
the extra registers or the extra wide registers?

32bit linux can use more than 4 gigs of ram even though any individual
program is limited.  However, I don't seem to see all that many
audio (or general use desktop) programs, that need more than 2 gigs of
RAM.