Ubuntu

Any harm in using Ubuntu 32bit on a Pentium 4 64bit Dell desktop computer? Since most desktop programs are 32bit these days.

Asked by Kirk Jones

I have an old Dell OptiPlex GX620 with 2 80 Gb SATA HDDs in it with a Pentium 4 2.83 GHz 64bit CPU. Since most of the current desktop programs are still 32bit, would it do any harm to just load Ubuntu 10.4 32bit on the old beast? Please let me know your mind.

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Marc Stewart
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Hsn (alshawaf) said : 		#1

i don't think installing 32bit will make any harm
64bit can run 32bit
but there is a 64bit ubuntu why don't you install it?

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marcobra (Marco Braida) (marcobra) said : 		#2

Please tell how many installed ram do you have...?

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marcus aurelius (adbiz) said : 		#3

From what I've read, the only problem you'll have is accessing RAM above 3.3 gigs. I ran 32-bit Windoze on a 64-bit processor with 4 gigs of RAM. Windoze couldn't access anything above 3 gigs.

You might want to check out the Ubuntu docs. It recommends running 32-bit on a desktop, unless you're running a server, then you'd go for 64-bit.

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Best Marc Stewart (marc.stewart) said : 		#4

Since you describe your computer as old, I'm guessing it has less than 4GB of memory. So you should definitely just use 32-bit Ubuntu. As you already know, 64-bit programs are still less common than their 32-bit counterparts. This is particularly true if you want to use Flash for YouTube or whatever, since Adobe have currently withdrawn their 64-bit plugin. So 32-bit will actually allow you to use more software at the moment. Go ahead - it certainly won't do any harm.

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Kirk Jones (kirk-kirk-jones) said : 		#5

The machine though old has 4 Gb of DDR2 SDRAM in it. I'll go ahead and put Ubuntu 10.04 I386 32bit on it. Thanks all of you that responded for your help in making this decision.

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Hsn (alshawaf) said : 		#6

if you going to install ubuntu 10.04 I386 32bit then you will lose 1GB of your RAM
the 32bit system can't see 4GB RAM only see it as 3GB

of course this is your choice