32 or 64 bit Linux ?

lemonade · 9 Dec 2011 at 11:53

I used to have problems on Ubuntu and derived distros from 1-3 years ago, but currently use the latest 64bit Ubuntu at home and it works fine and setup a few at work and they work well as well, much more stable then the last time I tried it.

Huw · 9 Dec 2011 at 15:06

jack.mitchell said:
Just a side note, IMO you really shouldn't be using POP for emails, the only reason to would be if that is all your mail server supports, or you keep running out of space on your mail server.

Yeah, I agree with this. There isn't really much need to use POP any more these days, now that you get plenty of storage with mail hosts. And with so many of us using more and more devices to access email, using POP is generally a massive hindrance.

101001101 · 9 Dec 2011 at 23:25

64 bit, for £80 on overclockers you can buy 16GB RAM that is an absolute bargain, so therefore 64bit

101001101 · 9 Dec 2011 at 23:26

jack.mitchell said:
64 bit. It was stable on Linux well before it was stable in the world of windows from my experience. This is from the home user point of view, I can't speak for the early 64 bit windows servers.

It was stable on Sun Solaris well before it was stable on most things... RIP

BusError · 9 Dec 2011 at 23:58

I personally use a 64 bit kernel and 32 bits userland on my servers. I don't /need/ 64 bits for most things, and the 64 bits kernel gives me quite a bit more addressing space if I need it.
However 64 bit userland is about 15% faster on the same hardware. It's also 15% bigger in general.

As for email, many many years ago I decided to become free of the email "client of the day/year/decade" and have to "convert" etc.

What I now run is a small "dovecot" linux IMAP server that receives all my mail (via procmail) and I use the "client of the day" to connect to it. This allows me to use as many "clients" as I like (iPhone, iPad, webmail etc) and the mail storage is stored in simple "mbox" file that are easy to index, backup, and are in a file format that has been universally used for 25 years.

inSilica · 11 Dec 2011 at 10:35

it's a no brainer ... 64bit. It's getting better and better. Back in the day you struggled to get many drivers to work on 64bit. This is no longer the case...

Montala · 11 Dec 2011 at 11:47

Thanks guys... I think I now have the answer to my original question, which (without a shadow of a doubt!) is to go for 64 bit!

I have now prepared my bootable USB stick containing the 64 bit DVD version of Linux Mint 12, so reckon I am ready to rock and roll.

Have got a fairly full day planned for today though, so I plan to leave it until I can give it my full concentration for an hour or so, and then to check out all the new hardware etc... after applying the latest updates of course!

Montala · 11 Dec 2011 at 11:52

MasterPlan1 said:
You'll be able to export everything into a PST then import that into whatever, PST is pretty much universally read by most\all modern day email clients.

Just picking up on this one, I think I might dig out a copy of Microsoft Outlook to install on my Windows PC, and do a copy from Live Mail into that.

I will then have a PST file, which will hopefully be recognised by Thunderbird... won't it?

Huw · 11 Dec 2011 at 23:15

Montala said:
Just picking up on this one, I think I might dig out a copy of Microsoft Outlook to install on my Windows PC, and do a copy from Live Mail into that.

I will then have a PST file, which will hopefully be recognised by Thunderbird... won't it?

Yeah, good call. This page may help too (note the section for Linux down the page).