32bit multimedia software on 64bit Linux?

[Art Edwards]

Jiri Dvorak wrote:
> 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...
> 
> 
>From the set of difficult applications, I might agree that 32 bit would
do no harm. However, I wouldn't say generally that 64-bit is bad for a
desktop. If you do very large calculations, or use any application that
uses very large memroy, the 64-bit address space is simply required.

I have not noticed any difference in boot time between the 64-bit and
the 32-bit systems I run. I will say that my 64-bit (testing) debian
desktop with mirrored raid is very quick.

> 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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>