On Wed, 12 May 2004 16:25:51 -0400, Menuz2 wrote:

If I load a 64 bit Linux, such as SUSE, will it run both existing 32 bit and
new 64 bit binaries. Not every program I would like to use is available in
source. Most but not all. The same question for the beta XP 86-64 release.
Normal Win32 OS's did a good job running 16 programs, I am just wondering
about the new 64 OSes?

Nuz

It's not a 32 bit vs 64 bit issue. The real problem is likely to be with
the libraries that the binary applications require. For example I use a
number of binary applications, Cadence's NCsim and Xilinx's tool suite. On
Mandrake 10 (32 bit version on a standard Xeon or PIII) I can't run the
GUI tools in Xilinx's suite but I can run everything in the Cadence tool
set. The issue has to do with some library that changed between between
Mandrake 9.2 and 10, Xilinx relies on it, Cadence doesn't. In theory there
should be no problem running both 32 and 64 bit binaries on a 64 bit OS
but you won't know for your applications unless you try them.