I’ve heard that, for several linux distributions (Ubuntu & Mint, for example), the 64bits release was much less stable. Mint even warn users about it…
Is it also the case for openSUSE ?
Mint is a special case, they have only just started releasing a 64-bit version. I can’t speak for Ubuntu, I only have it on a 32-bit machine.
I have been using SUSE 64-bit for several years now and I haven’t had any issues with stability. In the past some programs had to be run in 32-bit mode (which works fine, just irks perfectionists) but those are only a handful now, most of them proprietary.
If you do a search on the forum you will find lots of threads on this with opinions both ways. In the end it’s your call.
Personally I think Suse has one of the most transparent versions.
I wouldn’t recommend against it or recommend it, that is for you to decide. 64bit afaik regardless of distro has come a long way, I can’t even remember the last time I had a specific 64bit problem.
But it is possible you may get incompatibility issues, but the Suse implementation makes it very easy to install 32bit alongside 64bit.
What do you mean by “less stable”?
Stability depends on a lot of different factors, but I haven’t heard of a processor architecture causing stability problems.
What I think was really meant by others’ statements is b/c 64-bit is relatively new there are many applications that haven’t been, or only recently, released with a 64-bit version of their application. For example, the new 64-bit Flash plugin was only recently released and it is still in alpha. The software isn’t stable as a result of being for the 64-bit architecture; it isn’t stable because it is still in alpha.
Shinka wrote:
> I’ve heard that, for several linux distributions (Ubuntu & Mint, for
> example), the 64bits release was much less stable. Mint even warn users
> about it…
>
> Is it also the case for openSUSE ?
Each architecture has its own “glitches”. That said, I find the same
stability on openSUSE 32 and 64 bits.
The only problem with 64 bits installations were (“were”, in past tense :-P)
some browser plugins (i.e., flash player and java JRE) not being
available “natively” for this arch.
Nowadays both are available, so I see no problem at all.
Greetings,
–
Camaleón
Some users have had issues recently with bbc, playing flash _64
caf4926 wrote:
> Some users have had issues recently with bbc, playing flash _64
Well, I also have problems with 32 bits version, but that’s flashplayer’s
nature: linux version (whatever arch) is a bit “crappy” O:-)
Greetings,
–
Camaleón
I use openSUSE 64bit at the moment.
I haven’t noticed any stability problems.
However, from time to time I stumble upon
some little programs/features/codecs,
which don’t work just because I have 64 bit system
and installing 32 packages doesn’t help.
(Perhaps you can make them work,
but it’s too much of shaman dance with tambourine for me.)
Of course, you can use system without this little things,
but sometimes it is very irritating.
I’m not reinstalling 32 bit system just because
I don’t want to loose time for reconfiguring my system.
But I’m quite sure now, that next my install will be 32 bit.
It quite possible to install 32 bit browser on _64 sys.
On _64 Fedora used to install both by default. Not sure if that is still the case because my Box which uses Fedora is using 32bit. I had F7 _64, but that was when flash in _64 was pile…
They seem to have a codec problem there is a couple of codecs that aren’t native yet what exactly I’m not sure never came across them.
If this is the problem it means installing 32bit mplayer as 32codecs-all strangely enough doesn’t work in 64bit. But I suspect this will change a fair few libs.
I’m using 64-bit on 64-bit machines. Don’t miss any essential apps and quite satisfied by the 64-bit flashplayer alpha.
Well, I don’t think you can run 64-bit on 32-bit machines 
Well, I’ll have to deal with a lot of maths/scientific computing so I’ll go with the 64 version. I just wanted to make sure it was mature enough, I’m new to Linux and I would like to have a good experience 
Shinka wrote:
> Well, I’ll have to deal with a lot of maths/scientific computing so I’ll
> go with the 64 version. I just wanted to make sure it was mature enough,
> I’m new to Linux and I would like to have a good experience
This is NOT Windows. The 64-bit systems are very mature and all
drivers are tested with both architectures. I have been running a
64-bit system for over 2 years without difficulty.