Ask HN: which OS (win, OSX, linux) works best on 64-bit edition?

by urlwolf on 4/6/2009, 11:56 AM with 6 comments

I use R with large datasets, and it places a lot of constraints on memory. Having a 64-bit OS is a must. I also connect remotely from home to my office computer, where I have lots of memory. I've used ubuntu 8.04 64-bit, but I'm considering moving to some other thing if that means less problems. I'm testing windows server 2008 64-bit, because RDP is just faster than X over the network. But if the dev tools (python, ruby, R, java will be the most likely languages) are second class, it may not be worth changing.

What is your experience? What sites do you recommend for unbiased commentary on the current state of 64-bit OSs?

Thanks

  • by listic on 4/6/2009, 3:08 PM

    I'm a Windows person, and I don't want to switch away from XP. When I recently built a new PC with 4 GB of RAM I had to switch to 64-bit and I had a bit of unpleasant experience with it. Windows XP 64-bit is built upon the codebase of Windows Server 2003 (Vista is Windows Server 2008) and it shows.

    1. Some hardware may not have drivers for the OS. While on 32-bit system you can connect any device form a decade ago and it will possibly work (with drivers that were also written a decade ago), with 64-bit there's additional possibility of breakage. My printer, HP LaserJet 1015, is manufactured in 2004, but alas, it doesn't have drivers for XP 64-bit. I can get away with installing un-working driver and substituting the driver with LaserJet III's which kinda works. HP's support can recommend nothing better too.

    2. Same with system software; something might break too, most likely if it is system-related. I have used SwitchIt, a keyboard layout switcher, for a long time. Its last version is from 1996, but it worked fine for me. In 64-bit, it doesn't. (there's a beta version now which kinda works, but what if there wasn't one?)

    3. Not 64-bit related, but Windows related one. I came to like Hibernate feature in Windows XP, but it stopped working for RAM >= 4GB. It's a known issue: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888575 I guess, the person who wrote it left long ago and they can't figure out how to add support for files>4GB, or addressing RAM>4GB at boot time. Seems like other OS folks don't have this problem.

  • by safetytrick on 4/6/2009, 2:51 PM

    I've had a lot of problems with 64 bit Linux and no problems with 64 bit Windows or OSX (to be honest i did come late to the 64 bit Windows game, after many problems had been resolved). OS X is good but not if you have to pay the Apple prices for ram, or for a Mac Pro that can support more than a piddly 4 or 6 GB's.

  • by urlwolf on 4/6/2009, 5:49 PM

    @safetrick: good point about mac prices for a mac pro! The office one, work would pay, but then sooner or latter I'd have to convert at home too, which is no joke. Now, how is Mac OSX for VNC/remote desktop stuff? And how hard it is to do a hackintosh?

  • by alnayyir on 4/6/2009, 1:45 PM

    From experience: OS X by far.

    I used to debug Ubuntu 64.

    Windows 64 is getting really close to perfect though, most hardware have the necessary drivers (do NOT use no-name hardware on Win64), fallback 32-bit seems to function fine, but there are corner cases that don't exist on OS X.

  • by skwiddor on 4/6/2009, 5:00 PM

    xp64 - works fine, some diver issues, some apps don't work linux amd64 - works fine, some driver issues, some apps don't work OSx64 - not used it