[K12OSN] 64 bit ltsp vs. virtualization

[Julius Szelagiewicz]

On Tue, 24 Jun 2008, Nils Breunese wrote:

> Julius Szelagiewicz wrote:
>
> > There is a dramatic change in speed between the apps compiled for
> > 64bit
> > and 32bit. I'd suggest to run as much 64bit software as possible to
> > gain
> > full advantage of the server. The 64bit kernel alone is going to
> > make a
> > huge difference - direct memory access, faster script and utilities
> > execution add up very quickly. Look at your most frequently used
> > apps and
> > try to run them in 64bit executables - Firefox excluded, because of
> > the
> > plugins and crashing problems.
>
> If 64-bit Firefox with nspluginwrapper and 32-bit Flash and Java
> crashes, then why would I want to run it? Because it crashes fast?
> Firefox is probably the most frequently used app on our LTSP server,
> but I think we're going to run the 32-bit version because of the
> problems with plugins.
>
> Nils Breunese.
>
Niels,
	I'm sorry for the ambigous explanation, although I like the idea
of fast crashing :-)
	What I was trying to say is that it is really worthwile to run as
many apps in 64bit versions as possible, preferably without crashing.
Specifically, Firefox is not included. The basic operating system -
kernel, shells, system services - is a good beginning, as it gives you
native support for large memory. OO, Gimp, anything you run for many users
is going to help a lot when run in 64bit mode.
	I have one application - DB/C language interpreter, that all the
users run, that shows eightfold increase in speed between 32bit and 64bit
versions.
julius