Just got a new laptop, so I’m a 64-er.
I’m in Linux most of the time (you rock-head!), but I dual boot on my desktop and go into 64-bit Win7 for games.
I have 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium on my wife’s laptop and my kids’ desktop, but I just installed 32-bit Windows 7 Enterprise on a loaner laptop at work, so I chose both. I just remembered I also have it installed on a desktop in the basement (former kids’ machine) that I leave turned off. I haven’t had any problems with the 64-bit version; even a “Magic School Bus” CD-ROM that we picked up at a garage sale worked fine.
I’ll eventually get a replacement work laptop with 64-bit Windows 7 professional as part of our internal pilot, so I’ll see how good it is for those purposes. I was thinking I’d run XP Mode if I needed any legacy applications to work, but I haven’t seen any need for it so far. My previous experiments with Windows 7 64-bit had me running my legacy OS in a Virtual Machine for most of the time, with no performance hit.
The choice seems pretty clear-cut so far.
Ok, I’m going to be a noob and ask:
How many programs have 64 bit versions? And how do I find out which version a program is written for?
Where I would LOVE it it is when I’m editing photos with The Gimp. If it had a 64 bit version, and I had a 64 bit version of 7, and I could have more than 4 GB of ram, it would make things MUCH easier and faster. (I guess.)
What about Firefox? My music player (Rhapshitty, I mean Rhapsody)? etc.
I’ve used both the 32 and 64-bit versions under Win7-64 with no problems.
The 64-bit version is labeled as experimental and beta but it’s been solid for me.
Right after Windows 7 came out, I snatched one of those Home Premium “family” 3-license packs for $150. Man, those disappeared quickly! Best Buy and Staples ran out in a few days, and I was able to grab on of the last ones at Office Max. It came with two CD’s, one for each version.
My Desktop and Laptop had Vista Home Premium 64-bit installed, so I did a clean install of 7 64-bit on both using the “double install” trick, and it was definitely a night and day difference!
I just got a Netbook recently, and let’s just say the 32-bit vs 64-bit thing is much less important than making sure you don’t EVER buy anything with Windows 7 Starter Edition pre-installed. :mad:
I use 32 bit Win 7 because Intel 478 processors don’t support 64 bit software.