32bit multimedia software on 64bit Linux?

[Jiri Dvorak]

I'd suggest not to run 64bit on a desktop system. 64bit might have its benefits
in a server environment, but on a desktop you run into unnecessary trouble.
I just "downgraded" my core 2 duo notebook from 64bit edgy to 32bit feisty.
Not only is the trouble with browser plugins/multimedia gone, the interactive
performance seems much better now. The system boots faster, windows pop up
quicker. Sure, it's not really an objective measure as I changed to feisty, too.
But I like the result...


On 4/28/07, Art Edwards <edwardsa at icantbelieveimdoingthis.com> wrote:
> I'm still running edgy on a 64-bit amd laptop (waiting for upgrade
> issues to be truly resolved!). However, I use a 32-bit chroot. This is a
> separate directory that sits under one of the 64-bit file systems where
> a complete, though small, set of 32-bit applications runs. There are
> some nice directions for setting up 32-bit chroots on the ubuntu forums.
> Google 32-bit chroot ubuntu. Using the 32-bit firefox I get flash9
> operability. I have not tried installing Xine there yet.
>
> Art Edwards
>
> Florin Andrei wrote:
> > One thing that kept me from using 64 bit Linux was multimedia.
> >
> > In order to play certain proprietary media formats, one method was to
> > use Xine or Mplayer and drop a collection of Windows DLLs (codecs) in
> > /usr/lib/win32 which Xine/Mplayer were able to use to decode those formats.
> > Obviously, that won't work on a 64 bit Linux OS - in that case, one
> > technique that I've seen was to install the 32 bit versions of Xine or
> > Mplayer, along with all the 32 bit libraries needed by those
> > applications, then use the 32 bit versions of the players, along with
> > the Win32 codecs, to play the proprietary formats.
> >
> > Also, 64 bit Flash is still not available. I've seen the same technique
> > used to work around this problem: install 32 bit Firefox along with all
> > the necessary 32 bit libraries, then install the 32 bit Flash.
> >
> > I just tested 32 bit Ubuntu 7.04 on an AMD64 system and it works fine,
> > including multimedia. If I install the 64 bit version instead of the
> > current one, what do I have to do to make sure I'll be able to play all
> > the multimedia content that the current 32 bit OS is able to play? It's
> > mostly 3 types of content that I'm worried about:
> >
> > 1. Proprietary media files such as WMV, QuickTime, Real Video
> > 2. Flash
> > 3. Java applets (OK, this is not strictly "multimedia" but it matters to
> > me and it's in the same 32-vs-64 bit conundrum)
> >
> > I think there is a 64 bit version of Java that might work fine (although
> > I never tried it until now), but I'm not sure about #1 and #2.
> >
>
>
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