What OS do you use?

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Fedora 14.

Debian Linux on a borrowed HP notebook.

I miss my ibook2 which I ran with Debian as well ... I wish I could finally finance a new harddisk for it.

I have a generic Core i5-based PC (which has been completely upgraded a few times) running several operating systems under NXTop (which is a specialized Xen/Linux distribution that lets you run several systems side by side, essentially "multi-booting" without rebooting). Previously, it ran Solaris Express with two Debian systems running as Xen guests, and before that, it was set up in a conventional dual-boot configuration with Debian 3.0 and Windows XP.

These are the systems that are currently installed:
Nexenta 3.0 (this is sort of my primary operating system; it also acts as a file server for the other systems)
Windows XP (the current install is completely new, and not the same install from when I was dual-booting)
Xubuntu 10.04 (the embedded NXTop host domain is also based on Ubuntu 10.04)
Debian 3.0 (this was the primary system that I ran on it when I got it back in 2003; I still use it sometimes for running a few things that won't run on newer systems)
Solaris Express snv_130 (I don't use this very often, because I prefer Nexenta over Sun Solaris)

I also have an iBook G4 running OS X 10.4, as well as several other older computers of various architectures running various operating systems.

Whatever comes pre-loaded on the computer

Currently using Windows 7 Pro 32bit version though, on my next computer build sometime next year will be using Windows 7 Pro 64bit version ...

I didn't realize anyone actually had Win7 32-bit.

They still make 32 bit operating systems?

Yep. It's called "Mac OS X."

From the process list of my Mac:

He didnt say they dont make 64 bit operating systems. He said they still make 32 bit bit versions - and they (try to) force them on some users equipped with 64 bit capable processors.

Oh, that again. Well my MacBook don't run the 64 bit kernel, but it runs most apps as 64 bit so I'm not fussed.

Great, you have a 64-bit file manager. You do not have a 64-bit operating system. OS X still defaults to 32-bit on everything but the Mac Pro, if I remember correctly, and they put a lot of impediments in the way of users who want to run 64-bit. As far as I've been able to determine, it's not even possible except on recent Macbook Pros and some iMacs. At least Microsoft is honest enough to tell you if they're selling you a 32-bit or 64-bit operating system—and it actually is as advertised when you go to install it. Hardly anyone buying a new generic PC today will be running a 32-bit OS on it (unless they bought a cheap netbook). Virtually everyone buying a new Mac will be on 32-bit.

To be fair, your Average Joe computer shopper couldn't care less if they've got 32 or 64 bit anyway.

The type of geeks who do care can make any recent Mac (anything from the past year or so) run the OS at 64 bit by just holding down some keys while it boots. I believe there are hacks to make older Macs do so, too, but they can cause problems and it's not really worth it.

I, personally, am perfectly happy with just having my apps running at 64 bit. Firefox is doing so right now. Runs pretty swiftly most of the time.

Yes, but they advertized to me that Snow Leopard was a fully 64-bit OS, and then they blocked me from running it in anything but 32-bit mode on my Macbook with a 64-bit processor. I am understandably a bit annoyed.


I think you need at least an MBP still. The current Macbooks do not allow a 64-bit kernel. And I've tried those hacks; they don't work, at least not on my model. It's part of Apple's normal pattern of ditching past users who haven't bought the newest and shiniest toy.

BTW: There is no reason they should cause problems if they did work. I am running a fully 64-bit Unix-based operating system on my Macbook right now, and it's completely stable. It's not OS X.


I didn't know Mozilla had released a 64-bit build for Mac yet. I think the version of FF on my Snow Leopard partition is still 32-bit.

Companies do that all the time, Microsoft put stupid limits on things too - no desktop background on Windows 7 Starter, anyone?



Again, lots of companies do things like this. It's annoying, yeah, but not exclusive to Apple.

Another example is the HTC G1... They haven't been officially updating that at all for ages now.



I suggest you get a different brand of laptop, then, if you don't want OS X or to buy a MBP. Or you could run OSx86 on a different branded laptop if you'd still like OS X.



Ahh, my bad, they haven't, I was thinking of Safari. You can download 64 bit builds of Firefox for Windows, OS X, and Linux if you wish, though.

That's the plan.


I remember on SL's release it was generally recommended to run Safari in 32-bit mode because of some plugin compatibility issues. I think those have all been cleared up now though.