Ubuntu

Why is the 64-bit version of 10.10 not recommended?

Asked by Bruce Klein

I went to download Ubuntu 10.10, desktop edition from the main download page. A drop down box offered me a choice of 32-bit or 64-bit, but the 32-bit version was "recommended." That seems strange to me since I have a modern intel i7 system with 6 GB of RAM and would normally have expected to install a 64-bit OS. However the recommendation made me worried that there are known bugs or instabilities in the 64-bit version and I should therefore avoid it. I ended up selecting the 32-bit version despite knowing it will cause limitations as far as addressable memory.

So why is the 64-bit version not recommended? Should this information be available on the download page?

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Emre AYTAÇ
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marcobra (Marco Braida) (marcobra) said : 		#1

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/32bit_and_64bit

New to Ubuntu: read the Ubuntu Manual, it's very informative: http://ubuntu-manual.org/
Click on the "download Button" to download the latest PDF version.
The online help https://help.ubuntu.com/10.04/index.html

Relax and fun:
http://planet.ubuntu.com/ and Full Circle Magazine http://fullcirclemagazine.org/

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Bruce Klein (brucek) said : 		#2

Thanks Marco (again!) for the speedy reply. I'm afraid this just makes things murkier though. The first document you link above includes the phrase:

"Unless you have specific reasons to choose 32-bit, we recommend 64-bit. "

This seems in direct conflict with the options offered on the download page:

[first option] 32-bit (recommended)
[second option] 64-bit

The user manual you reference is for 10.04 and not for 10.10.

So my original question remains: is there a specific defect in version 10.10 64-bit that has caused the Ubuntu team to recommend the 32-bit version instead of the 64-bit version on the download page?

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Best Emre AYTAÇ (eaytac) said : 		#3

Hi;

This question was discussed very much on some forums. The main reason some applications doesn't support 64-bit and some applications (like Adobe Flash player) not working properly on some computers. I used 64-bit and 32-bit, I didn't have any problems with 64-bit. So use 64-bit or 32-bit, what you want :)

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Bruce Klein (brucek) said : 		#4

Thanks Emre AYTAÇ, that solved my question.